The Relationship between Types of Social Network and Health among the ElderlyElham Mohammadi

Social network types are a composite describing the interpersonal milieu and can be used for examination of the health and well-being of the population. This study tries to identify different types of social network used by retired elderly individuals and to compare their health when using the different identified network types. This study used a survey method. The SF-12 questionnaire (a shortened form of the SF-36 questionnaire) and a checklist of structural and interactional characteristics were used for gathering data.  Collected through convenient sampling, the study sample consisted of 230 retired elderly individuals, aged over 60 who were members of the Civic Retiree Center and Educational Retiree Center of Karaj. The K-means cluster analysis was used for derivation of social network types and a One-Way ANNOVA was adopted for comparing health among the groups. Four types of social networks were identified among older adults: diverse, family-focused, kin-focused and friend-focused. Respondents who belonged to diverse network had the highest health (physical and mental) scores and those with a more family-focused network had the lowest health score. Comparisons showed that the elderly individuals embedded in diverse and kin-focused networks had significantly higher health scores than those with a more family-focused network. Considering the importance of the individual in the environment perspective in social work, social network typology can give social workers a good assessment framework for understanding the health status of retired adults.