An Overview of Social Participation in Older Adults: Concepts and Assessments

In older adults, social participation is an important component of rehabilitation and health promotion. Several studies have attempted to describe the definition and concepts of social participation, and there were many outcomes to measure social participation. This overview provides information about representative social participation and related concepts that have been defined in the literature. A standardized definition of social participation has not been developed; commonly, recognition for social participation was proposed as focused on involvement in social activities that provide interaction with others in a society or community. Many instruments assess the various aspects of social participation. Because of operational definition and diversity in social participation, performance in social participation was adopted as an aspect of assessment. Further discussions are needed to clarify the definition of social participation and evaluate the instruments used to assess social participation for it to be useful for rehabilitation and health promotion. In doing so, determining and developing assessment and intervention based on the purpose or perspective of social participation in older adults with and without disabilities is important.