Social vulnerability and health in older adults

Many factors affect people's health, including their genetic makeup, the environment in which they live, and their lifestyles. The environment includes social factors, such as support networks of friends and relatives, access to resources, participation in one's community, and self-esteem and control over one's life situation. For example, people with low levels of social support and low levels of participation in their community have a higher risk of developing certain diseases, becoming disabled, and dying. However, these studies have tended to look at social factors individually, rather than considering them in combination with one another to take into account how various social factors might be inter-related and have combined effects on health and well-being. Interestingly, although society is now ageing at a faster rate than ever before, there have also been few studies looking at how social factors affect the health of older adults. This study will investigate how a number of social factors, considered together as "social vulnerability", relate to seniors' health, and whether peoples¿ level of social vulnerability affects their risk of suffering bad health outcomes, such as dementia, moving to a nursing home, becoming functionally disabled, and dying. By better understanding how social factors influence health, this study can help contribute to our understanding of health and disease, and suggest ways in which social risks and health policies might be modified to encourage better health in Canadian seniors.