An Investigation of the Factors Affecting Social Seclusion and the Social Activity Needs in Husband-Wife Elderly Households

Kosuke KAWAMURA, Yuki TAKENAKA, Emi TOKURA, Chisa KIMURA, Mikiyasu TANABE, Hiroko ITO, Tsukasa MIYAMA, Taeko HORI, Kenya MATSUMOTO 

       Kyoto Tachibana University, 34 Yamada-cho, Oyake, Yamashina-ku, Kyoto 607-8175, Japan (kawamura-k@tachibana-u.ac.jp)

Objectives: The present study investigated the factors causing social seclusion and understanding the social activities needed in husband-wife households to gain an insight in developing a program for preventing the elderly married couples from seclusion.

Methods: An anonymous questionnaire was distributed among a community of exclusively husband-wife elderly households (age: > 65 years). The questionnaire on self-efficacy scale with regard to going out among community-dwelling elderly (SEGE), rating scale for self-efficacy of physical activity in frail elderly people (physical activity SE), geriatric depression scale - short version-Japanese (GDS-S-J), and on social capital, age, gender, and long-term care level. SEGE values were categorized variables, while others were treated as individual variables by multiple regression analysis. In addition, the median SEGE values that were categorized by gender, confirmed the trends in social activity needs.

Results: In male elderly, ‘walking’, ‘stair-climbing’, ‘lifting a weight’ in the category of physical activity SE were high, and seclusion tendency was low in couples who had good husband-wife relationship, and seclusion tendency was high when GDS-S-J values were high. As for the female elderly, seclusion tendency was low when ‘walking’, ‘lifting a weight’, and social capital were high; the seclusion tendency was high when age, long-term care level, and GDS-S-J values were high. Additionally, the social activity needs did not exhibit differences when male and female elderly were compared separately according to median SEGE values.

Discussion: In the male elderly, it is important to prevent social seclusion from society via first mutual invitation to join social activity among the couples, and subsequently through intervention towards promoting elevated self-efficacy generated by couple-participation in physical activity. However, the female elderly can continue maintaining relationships with other community residents for their reciprocity. Thus, we found a gender difference needed to consider about seclusion prevention.

Keywords: social seclusion, elderly, husband wife households