Social factors influence an individual’s future health, but there is currently no practical way to summarize the prognostic impact of relationship strength, economic status, and other aspects of social life.
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco aim to change that. Researchers recently took a comprehensive look at the social attributes of older adults and distilled them into a short survey that can predict longevity. The study, published in PNAS, will have applications in clinical, population health, and research settings.
For the study, the team analyzed information from 8,250 adults aged 65 and older. 22% died within 4 years of the baseline interview. His prediction method, using a machine learning tool called LASSO, extracted 183 social predictors and revealed eight factors that predicted death within four years. These include poor neighborhood cleanliness, poor financial management, seeing children less than once a year, not working for pay, being actively involved with children, and volunteer work. feel isolated, or are treated with a lack of courtesy or respect.
“When we think about longevity, we often overemphasize the importance of medical conditions,” says lead author Sachin J. Shah, a physician-scientist at MGH and Harvard Medical School. “This study shows that our social lives are just as important as our medical conditions. We use data-driven 10 questions to predict lifespan using age, gender, and social characteristics. We created a study that also predicts other outcomes that are important to older adults, such as independent living.”
Shah and his colleagues are now working to validate their findings through additional studies and incorporate what they call the Social Frailty Index into medical research.
They have also made the Social Frailty Index available to others online. Clinicians can use this index to help older adults engage in advanced care planning and consider medical interventions. However, the researchers say that healthcare providers should avoid using this metric to limit care for higher-than-average older adults on the grounds that they are “socially frail.” He emphasized.
Instead, this tool should be used to identify at-risk individuals who could benefit from measures that address social issues that impact their health. Additionally, researchers and policy makers working in fields related to health and aging are likely to find a variety of uses for this index.
Other study co-authors include Sandra Oreper, Sun Young Jeon, W. John Boscardin, Margaret C. Fang, and Kenneth E. Covinsky. The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
daily gazette
Sign up for our daily email to get the latest Harvard University news.