Participation in community gathering place and social capital: A longitudinal study of older adults

Social capital is a common target of intervention used by policymakers to address the health challenges of older adults. However, evidence for the effectiveness of social capital interventions remain still clearly lacking.

This study used a longitudinal study design. We used three waves of data (2016, 2017, and 2019) from 6025 older adults in Japan. We assessed ten social capital indicators in 2019 as outcomes. The exposure was participation in community gathering places in 2017. Pre-exposure characteristics and prior outcome levels in 2016 were adjusted. Linear regression analysis and modified Poisson regression analysis were employed according to the nature of the outcome.

Community gathering places participation was positively associated with nine social capital indicators; frequency of meeting friends (B: 0.55), number of friends seen within a month (B: 0.49), number of community organizations (B: 0.28-0.55), norms of reciprocity (B: 0.18), and attachment (B: 0.15); all results showed p1.