Abstract

SANTOS, Jéssica Dellalibera dos et al. Social participation of elderly: associations with health, mobility and purpose of life. Psic., Saúde & Doenças [online]. 2019, vol.20, n.2, pp.367-383. ISSN 1645-0086.  https://doi.org/10.15309/19psd200208.

The maintenance of social participation in old age, even in the presence of diseases and disabilities, has been potentially explained by the presence of life purpose as a motivational indicator that gives meaning, direction, goals and meaning. But such associations have been little empirically tested. Therefore, we attempted to test a hypothetical model explaining social participation, considering the variables gender, age, schooling, number of diseases and mobility and life purpose from data of 109 elderly (78.48 + 4.30 years, 63 , 3% female) participants in the follow-up measure of the Fragility in Brazilian Elderly (FIBRA) study in the sub-district of Ermelino Matarazzo (SP). We used the strategy of Analysis of Structural Equations via Path Analysis to test the explanatory model. The resulting model revealed direct associations between schooling, mobility and life purpose and social and indirect participation between age and social participation, mediated by life purpose. Although both social participation and life purpose tend to decrease in old age, greater purpose has broadened associations with maintaining social activities even with advancing age, regardless of educational or mobility indicators.

Keywords : social participation; goals; seniors; quality of life.

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