Development of a social activities scale for community-dwelling older people requiring support.
Michiyo Hirano, Kazuko Saeki, Izumi Ueda
PMID 33072374WHAT IT FOUND
A 15-item questionnaire about how often older people needing support socialise, interact with family or use activity programmes was developed.
It gave consistent scores and matched another activity measure, but its total score did not separate people needing support from healthy older people.
Key findings
01The draft 17-item SASOS was reduced to 15 items and had acceptable internal consistency.
02Total SASOS scores correlated with another social activity measure, perceived health and a sense of purpose.
03Total SASOS scores did not significantly differ between healthy older people and older people requiring support, although subscale scores did.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was a convenience sample from three municipalities in Japan, was mostly women, and included fewer men than women, so the scale may not work the same way in other places or for men. The study used a single anonymous questionnaire, so test-retest reliability, predictive validity and responsiveness to change over time were not examined. The total SASOS score did not separate older people requiring support from healthy older people, and the paper's direction wording for subscale differences is inconsistent. The study was cross-sectional, so correlations with ikigai and perceived health do not show that social activities cause well-being. Fit indices were slightly below recommended values, and some items did not contribute to goodness of fit.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The article metadata lists non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use SASOS as a validated outcome measure or assume that increasing social activities will improve sense of purpose or health. The study was cross-sectional, the total score did not separate older people needing support from healthy older people, and the authors state no causal relationship was established.