Social network type and health status in a national sample of elderly Israelis

A typology of social support networks was examined in relation to five health measures in a national probability sample of Israelis aged 60 and over, using multiple classification analysis (N = 4214). The procedure revealed that the more resourceful diversified and friend and neighbor network types were consistently associated with better scores on measures of basic and instrumental activities of daily living, incontinence, vision and self-rated health, even when controlling for respondents' age, sex and education. The religious family network type, also endowed with considerable support potential, tended to correlate with lower health scores. The narrow family focused network had average health ratings or less, and a moderate support capability. The least resourceful network type, the attenuated network, was most frequently associated with poor health.