Social participation and socioeconomic strata in older people

<p>  The purpose of the present study is to identify the socioeconomic strata that participate in salons, sports, hobby, and volunteer groups. This study was based on cross-sectional data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study 2016, which included 20,972 older people (aged 65 years or older), without functional decline and currently residing in 38 municipalities across Japan. Poisson regression analysis was used to determine the associations between socioeconomic strata (e.g., educational attainment, equivalent income, and longest job) and older people’s participation in salons, sports groups, hobby groups, and volunteer groups by gender. In this analysis, 11 factors including demographic and biological, psychosocial, behavioral, and environmental factors were adjusted. Participation in salons was not associated with any socioeconomic strata. Participation in sports and hobby was associated with higher educational attainment and higher income. Conversely, participation in volunteer groups was associated with working the longest in non-managerial positions while their participation in sports groups was associated with working the longest in managerial positions. These findings imply that it is important to assess the socioeconomic strata of participants when implementing measures aimed at promoting social participation.</p>