People aged 50 and older find with poor or fair health are twice as likely to report not having any close friends.
Data from the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging found that friends can play a key role for people over the age of 50, but that those with mental or physical health problems can experience challenges in this area.
“There is a strong link between friendship and physical and mental health. Friendships are an important resource for maintaining one’s health in late-life,” Sarah Patterson, Ph.D., the University of Michigan demographer who worked with the poll team on the new survey told Theravive.
“The National Poll on Healthy Aging (NPHA) is a recurring, nationally representative study of adults ages 50 and older in the U.S. NPHA asks older adults about a variety of issues in their life related to health and well-being. I’m a Demographer and Sociologist who focuses on relationships and well-being, especially related to care. Friends are often less studied than family relationships among older adults but we know that friends play an important part in older adult’s overall health. Therefore, we asked about their friends as well as different types of support they receive from friends.”
The poll found that overall 90% of people aged 50 and above say they had at least one close friend, whilst 75% said they had enough close friends. 70% of the people who had a close friend reported that they could definitely count on that person to provide support in a discussion about their health.
However, the percentage of people who reported that they didn’t have any closer friends was twice as high in people with worse health. 20% of people with poor or fair mental health reported not having a close friend, whilst 18% of those with poor or fair physical health reported the same thing.
47% of those with poor or fair mental health said they didn’t have enough friends. They were also more likely to report that it was harder for them to make friends at this stage of life than earlier in life.
“As people become older and experience more health issues, support networks might shrink. I conducted focus groups (a separate project from the poll) of caregivers of older adults with dementia and one thing that stuck out was that many people said the older adult’s friends stopped contacting them after their dementia progressed. It’s important to continue to connect with people even as their health changes because those support networks are vital for their overall health,” Patterson said.
She said that the data from the poll highlights the importance of friendship in older age.
“We often focus on families of older adults, but friends play such an important part in their lives as well! Friends can provide social and emotional support as well as help with activities of daily living when needed,” she said.
“Friendships are important for one’s overall health as they age, but friendship might look a little different for each person. It might not be so much how many people they have as friends but whether they feel they have enough friends. We’re conducting more research on this currently.”
When it comes to older adults making new connections with others, she says community programs and activities can be a good place to start.
“Community programs can focus on helping older adults form new friendships as well as maintain the friendships they have. As physical mobility becomes more difficult, community programs can think of new ways to get folks involved, including using things like zoom or other technologies. It’s important to keep accessibility in mind, so teaching people how to use alternative technologies is also an important part of the puzzle,” she said.