臺灣老人社會活動參與類型對心理健康影響之實證研究

An Empirical Study on the Impacts of Types of Social Activity Participation on Mental Health of the Elders in Taiwan

劉鶴群(He-Chiun Liou) ； 陳信光(Hsin-Kuang Chen)

《當代社會工作學刊》 11期 (2021/02) Pp. 168-205

摘要

本研究旨在分析臺灣老人社會活動參與類型及心理健康之關聯。國內外許多研究指出社會參與對老人的身心健康有益，可以提升部分身心功能或延緩老化速度。然檢視大多數之研究，係探討特定型態之社會參與或方案做為介入或處遇，檢視其對長者生理或心理健康之影響，較無針對一般公眾理解之長者社會活動參與類型進行比較分析。本研究則以2013年「老人狀況調查」之橫斷性資料，探究不同類型之社會活動參與（包括宗教活動、志願服務、進修活動、養生保健團體活動、休閒娛樂團體活動及政治團體活動），與老人日常生活感受的關聯性。研究發現在六項社會活動參與類型中，志願服務、進修活動及休閒活動參與等三項與老人日常生活感受有關。在控制人口學變項（性別、年齡、教育程度、婚姻狀況及同住狀況）下，社會活動參與越多，則老人之心理健康越佳，而其中又以休閒娛樂團體尤為顯著。研究結果證實，就整體而言，社會活動參與有益於老人之心理健康，然並非任何形式之社會活動參與皆然。基於心理健康較差易導致認知退化加速，故不論從老人個人身心健康，或從整體社會照顧成本抑制的角度而論，皆可積極鼓勵長者投入休閒娛樂活動。

關鍵字

老人社會參與 ； 老人心理健康

並列摘要

This research aims to analyze the relationship between types of social participation and mental health of the elderly people in Taiwan. Many studies have pointed out that social participation is beneficial to the physical and mental health of the elderly people, improving physical and mental functions or delay the process of aging. However, these studies examined the impact of specific types of social activities or programs on elders' physical or mental health, but fail to compare the effects of different types of participation. This study uses cross-sectional data from the 2013 ＂Survey on the Status of the Elderly＂ to explore the effects of types of social participation (including religious, voluntary, further education, health promoting, leisure, and political activities) on the elderly's mental health. It is found that among the six types of activities, elders participating in voluntary, further education and leisure activities are mentally significantly better off than their counterparts lacking participation. By controlling demographic variables (gender, age, educational level, marital status, and living status), the more social participation, the better the elders' mental health, and the participation in leisure activities is particularly effective. The results confirm that, on the whole, social participation is beneficial to the mental health of the elderly, but not all forms of social participation have the same effect. Since poor mental health arguably leads to accelerated cognitive degradation, whether from the perspective of personal physical and/or mental health, or from the perspective of overall social care cost suppression, the elderly should be encouraged to actively participate in recreational/leisure activities.

並列關鍵字

elderly social participation ； mental health of the elders