Marja Aartsen

Norwegian Social Research (NOVA) · Aging and Housing Studies

In this study, we evaluate whether the association between three types of social isolation (SI) and mental well-being (MWB) is mediated by loneliness. We include a pooled sample (N = 8,525) of people aged 65 or older, participating in the 2016 European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS). MWB is assessed with the World Health Organization Well-Being Inde...

Abstract: This study aims to explore the effects of childhood circumstances and conditions on the risk of exclusion from social relations in old age, using a life-course perspective and examining gender influence. Secondary analysis of SHARE. Weak and inconsistent consequences of the primary socialization context were found, however, in many cases,...

Social exclusion (SE), or the separation of individuals and groups from mainstream society, is associated with poor health and wellbeing, yet a substantial number of older people are socially excluded. There is increasing agreement that SE is multidimensional, comprising among others social relations, material resources, and/or civic participation....

Social exclusion is a serious problem that can lead to diminished well-being, health problems, premature death and increased societal costs. Depending on the definition used, 10 to 30% of the older adults experience social exclusion, and many have been confronted with prolonged isolation during the pandemic. Constructing measures for social inclusi...

Exclusion from social relations (ESR) in older age is associated with worse quality of life and adverse mental health outcomes. Recent evidence suggest that the perception of solitude and the evaluation of existing social networks modify the disadvantages of ESR among excluded older persons. This presentation takes a gender perspective on the topic...

Although volunteering is considered a good strategy for successful ageing, not many older adults are engaged in voluntary work and those who are do so mainly sporadically. This study focuses on time invested in volunteering rather than on doing voluntary work or not, as is often done in studies so far. By combining the theory of resources for volun...

Objectives Previous studies have shown the importance of individual markers of cognitive reserve, such as education and occupation, for cognitive health in old age. However, there has been only little investigation so far on how this relationship varies across contexts. Methods We analyzed data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in E...

Objectives: This study addresses the gendered risks of loneliness and depression in later life from a social exclusion perspective. Exclusion from social relations (ESR) in older age is an unwanted situation associated with increased loneliness and depressive symptoms, with gender differences in the perception of solitude, and the evaluation of exi...

Background Socioeconomic inequalities in health are well-established, but studies addressing lagged effects of income or of fluctuations in income over the life course are relatively rare. The current study aims to (i) identify and describe life-course income trajectories for men and women who are currently in later life; and (ii) assess the associ...

This study examined from a gender-sensitive perspective the associations of exclusion from social relations (ESR) with the quality of life (QoL) of excluded older persons. Being satisfied with existing relations (i.e., network satisfaction) may be particularly important for the QoL of older persons with small networks, whereas the QoL of “network-l...

Older adults face particular risks of exclusion from social relationships (ESR) and are especially vulnerable to its consequences. However, research so far has been limited to specific dimensions, countries, and time points. In this paper, we examine the prevalence and micro- and macro-level predictors of ESR among older adults (60+) using two wave...

Cross-national studies in Europe reveal sharp regional differences in the prevalence of loneliness among older adults, with the highest prevalence of loneliness in Eastern European countries. In this study, we investigate an alternative explanation for differences in loneliness prevalence based on differences in trust. Many of the Eastern European...

Articles Being socially connected is a universal human need, but a substantial number of older men and women are or become excluded from these connections in later life. Exclusion from social relations (ESR) is unwanted as it undermines people's ability to lead a healthy, active, and independent life. Policies to reduce this form of exclusion have...

This chapter brings together three dimensions of negative social relations as they impinge on and are experienced by older people, which have not been addressed together in previous studies. Each dimension, conflictual relationships, abuse and discrimination, is characterised by demeaning social interactions that are important to address when consi...

The links between loneliness and overall morbidity and mortality are well known, and this has profound implications for quality of life and health and welfare budgets. Most studies have been cross-sectional allowing for conclusions on correlates of loneliness, but more recently, some longitudinal studies have revealed also micro-level predictors of...

In this part we focus on the domain of exclusion from social relations where social relations can be defined as comprising social resources, social connections and social networks. Other types of social engagement with formal civic, political and voluntary groups and organisations are not included in this part, but instead are incorporated in the d...

Loneliness in later life is two times more prevalent in Eastern and Southern European countries than in Northern and Western European countries. One explanation that is put forth is the difference in expectations about social relations. We examine a not often evaluated role of trust in society as factor contributing to the country differences in lo...

Social isolation and loneliness have profound implications for quality of life and health and welfare budgets, but interventions to reduce loneliness are limited effective. The aim of this study is to examine the often-ignored impact of macro-level drivers of loneliness, in addition to micro-level drivers by adopting a cross-national perspective. W...

Subjective age (SA) is a core indicator of the individual ageing experience, with important consequences for successful ageing. The aim of the current study was to investigate the directions of the longitudinal associations between domains of SA and subjective wellbeing and physical functioning in the second half of life. We used three-wave survey...

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the cumulative disadvantage of different forms of childhood misfortune and adult-life socioeconomic conditions with regard to trajectories and levels of self-rated health in old age and whether these associations differed between welfare regimes (Scandinavian, Bismarckian, Southern European, and Eastern Euro...

Social exclusion is complex and dynamic, and it leads to the non-realization of social, economic, political or cultural rights or participation within a society. This critical review takes stock of the literature on exclusion of social relations. Social relations are defined as comprising social resources, social connections and social networks. An...

With the ageing of the population and recent pressures on important welfare state arrangements, updated knowledge on the linkage between socioeconomic status and health in old age is pertinent for shedding light on emerging patterns of health inequalities in the Nordic countries. This study examined self-rated health (SRH), mobility and activities...

Objectives: This study aimed to assess whether cumulative disadvantage in childhood misfortune and adult-life socioeconomic conditions influence the risk of frailty in old age and whether welfare regimes influence these associations. Methods: Data from 23358 participants aged 50 years and older included in the longitudinal SHARE survey were used...

In Romania, inequalities in health and wellbeing between younger and older Romanians are substantial, and an important reason for inequalities may be the higher risk of social exclusion among older adults. After the fall of Communism in 1989, the many transformations in economic structures and welfare regimes contributed to enhanced levels of socia...

This editorial serves a double purpose. It introduces the articles and commentary comprising this thematic issue on old-age exclusion, and simultaneously aims to make a concise contribution to the discussion on the relation between agency of older people and old-age exclusion. While indeed it is clear that limitations of agency due to a lack of res...

Background: Online interventions can be as effective as in-person interventions. However, attrition in online intervention is high and potentially biases the results. More importantly, high attrition rates might reduce the effectiveness of online interventions. Therefore, it is important to discover the extent to which factors affect adherence to...

Objective: Despite evidence that social support is strongly related to health, very little is known about the mechanisms underlying this association. This study investigates whether physical activity, depressive symptoms, and chronic diseases mediate the associations between social support and functional capacity. Method: Data from the Longitudinal...

Background. Welfare regimes in Europe modify individuals’ socioeconomic trajectories over their life-course, and, ultimately, the link between socioeconomic circumstances (SECs) and health. This paper aimed to assess whether the associations between life-course SECs (early-life, young adult-life, middle age and old age) and risk of poor self-rated...

Significance There is increasing evidence that socioeconomic conditions early in life have an impact on cognitive functioning in later life. Based on the large longitudinal sample from SHARE we find a clear pattern in cognitive functioning in old age, related to childhood socioeconomic conditions: Those from more affluent households show higher lev...

Objectives: This paper aimed to assess associations of childhood socioeconomic conditions (CSC) with the risk of frailty in old age and whether adulthood socioeconomic conditions (ASC) influence this association. Methods: Data from 21 185 individuals aged 50 years and older included in the longitudinal Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in E...

Social relations are important for health. Recent research found that people with high socio-economic positions (SEP) had larger networks with higher quality relationships than people with low SEP, which partly explains the well-known inequalities in health. Less is known whether also low quality or even conflicts in relations differ across gender...

The most commonly cited marker of exclusion from social relations is loneliness. However, other outcomes from pathways to social exclusion from social relations that may be equally as important to the individual or society, but are less well documented than loneliness. In a theoretical model developed by the working group on exclusion from social r...

Social exclusion in later life, or the separation of older individuals from mainstream society, has been identified by the European Union as one of the key challenges for ageing societies. Social exclusion is multidimensional, and one of the dimensions is elder abuse, and conflicts in social relations. Abuse and conflicting relations are associated...

It is a common finding that more educated older adults show higher levels of cognitive functioning and a lower risk of dementia. Cognitive reserve hypothesis additionally suggests that more educated persons are able to maintain their cognitive functioning at higher levels for longer time, resulting in initially slower decline which accelerates at h...

Socioeconomic health inequality is a global phenomenon and the Nordic countries, known for their generous welfare systems, are no exceptions. However, less is known about the health inequalities in very old age. This study examines self-rated health (SRH), mobility and activities of daily living (ADL) according to level of education in three oldest...

Objectives: The study investigates whether the disadvantaged position of men in the adverse consequences of widowhood for health and mortality also exists for changes in cognitive health. Methods: We used data of up to 1,269 men and women aged 65 years and older who participated in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam in three-yearly assessmen...

A growing literature shows that doing voluntary work not only helps the wider community but can also improve one’s own well-being. To date, however, few studies have examined the relationship between volunteering and well-being in non-US and especially in comparative data. We study this relationship using two waves of data of 18,559 individuals age...

4th Mid-Term Conference ”Ageing in Europe: Agency, Citizenship and the Dynamics of Power” of the Research Network on Ageing in Europe (RN01) of the European Sociological Association will take place in Brno, Czech Republic, from Wednesday to Friday, 5 - 7 September 2018. The major conference theme ‘Agency, Citizenship and the Dynamics of Power’ brin...

Het doel van dit artikel is het beschrijven van het ontwikkelproces van een complexe verpleegkundige interventie om familie en naasten – mantelzorgers – van oudere volwassenen met ernstige psychiatrische aandoeningen zoals schizofrenie, bipolaire problematiek en angst- en stemmingsstoornissen, te ondersteunen.

Research has indicated the need to consider the ageing process with technology adoption by older adults. This study examined psychological, health, social and demographic predictors with starting and stopping Internet use by older adults (2002–2012). Data were used from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, and Cox regression analyses were done t...

The relation between social network and health, and Socioeconomic Position (SEP) and health is well-established. This research investigates whether the social network is a pathway in the SEP-health relationship. Data are from the second wave of the Norwegian NorLAG study, with 2,543 men and 2,715 women, aged between 40 and 85. A gender stratified m...

Positive associations of neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics and older adults' cognitive functioning have been demonstrated in previous studies, but overall results have been mixed and evidence from European countries and particularly the Netherlands is scarce. We investigated the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and urbanity of neighbo...

Good health is one of the key qualities of life, but opportunities to be and remain healthy are unequally distributed across socio-economic groups. The beneficial health effects of the social network are well known. However, research on the social network as potential mediator in the pathway from socio-economic position (SEP) to health is scarce, w...

Stressvolle levensgebeurtenissen zoals echtscheiding van de ouders of een vroege sterfte van de ouders kunnen op hogere leeftijd nog grote gevolgen hebben. De kansen om dergelijke gebeurtenissen mee te maken zijn echter ongelijk verdeeld en verschillen tussen sociaal-economische groepen. Dit kan leiden tot sociaal-economische ongelijkheid in succes...

Background The recent policy of deinstitutionalization of health care in Western countries has resulted in a growing number of people - including elderly - with severe mental illness living in the community where they rely on families and others for support in daily living. Caregiving for partners, parents, children, and significant others can be a...

The predictive value of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) on intention and physical activity (PA) over time was examined. Data from the Aging Well and Healthily intervention program (targeting perceived behavioral control and attitude, not subjective norm) were analyzed, including pretest (T0), posttest (T1, except subjective norm) and 4-6 month...

Background Cognitive impairment and depression often co-occur in older adults, but it is not clear whether depression is a risk factor for cognitive decline, a psychological reaction to cognitive decline, or whether changes in depressive symptoms correlate with changes in cognitive performance over time. The co-morbid manifestation of depression an...

Objectives: Integration into social networks is an important determinant of health and survival in late adulthood. We first identify different types of non-kin networks among older adults and second, investigate the association of these types with survival rates. Method: Official register information on mortality is combined with data from the L...

Objectives: Gerotranscendence is defined as a transition from a materialistic and rationalistic perspective to a more cosmic and transcendent view of life accompanying the aging process. Would gerotranscendence levels still increase in later life? The current prospective study investigates 10-year trajectories of cosmic transcendence (a core dimen...

Objectives: Building on social stress theory, this study has 2 aims. First, we aim to estimate the effects of stressful life events in childhood and adulthood on Successful Aging (SA). Second, we examine how unequal exposure to such life events between individuals with different socioeconomic position (SEP) contributes to socioeconomic inequalitie...

The conference abstract has been published in Das Gesundheitswesen: Wörn, J., Ellwardt, L., Huisman, M., & Aartsen, M. (2016). Level of and Change in Cognitive Functioning among Dutch Older Adults: Does Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status Matter? Gesundheitswesen, 78(08/09), A15. doi:10.1055/s-0036-1586525

Background Cognitive and physical impairment frequently co-occur in older people. The aim of this study was to assess the temporal order of these age-related changes in cognitive and physical performance and to assess whether a relationship was different across specific cognitive and physical domains and age groups. Methods Cognitive domains inclu...

Loneliness stems from a mismatch between the social relationships one has and those one desires. Loneliness often has severe consequences for individuals and society. Recently, an online adaptation of the friendship enrichment program (FEP) was developed and tested to gain insight in its contribution to the alleviation of loneliness. Three loneline...

Background: This study examines to what extent education, occupation and income are associated with the multidimensional process of successful ageing, encompassing trajectories of physical, mental and social functioning in old age. Methods: We employed 16-year longitudinal data from 2095 participants aged 55-85 years at baseline in the Dutch, na...

Background: Depression often co-occurs in late-life in the context of declining cognitive functions, but it is not clear whether specific depression symptom dimensions are differentially associated with cognitive abilities. Methods: The study sample comprised 3107 community-dwelling older adults from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA)...

Background The Internet and information communication technology is today considered as a means to sustain active and healthy aging, and to provide better care for the aging population. There is an increase in prevalence in older adults using the Internet, however many are still not using the Internet. This study therefore, investigated predictors...

Objectives: Policy reforms in long-term care require an increased share of informal caregivers in elderly care. This may be more feasible for older adults who (believe they) can organize the care themselves and have a local social network. This study describes care network types, how they vary in the share of informal caregivers, and examines asso...

Social engagement has powerful effects on wellbeing, but variation in individual engagement throughout the lifecourse is wide. The trajectories may differ by gender and be affected by socio-economic status (SES). However, long-term development of social engagement is little studied and the effect of childhood SES on later-life social engagement rem...

Background Education, a marker for cognitive reserve, is thought to be associated with low risks of dementia, but less is known about its association with cognitive decline in preclinical stages of dementia. This study aimed to see whether higher education level could have a protective effect against faster cognitive decline in preclinical stages o...

ABSTRACT Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the association between physical frailty and social functioning among older adults, cross-sectionally and prospectively over 3 years. Study design: The study sample consisted of 1115 older adults aged 65 and over from two waves of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, a population based st...

To determine the prevalence and extent of successful aging (SA) when various suggestions proposed in the previous literature for improving models of SA are incorporated into one holistic operational definition. These suggestions include defining and measuring SA as a developmental process, including subjective indicators alongside more objective on...

An article (in Dutch) addressing how the large heterogeneity in functioning of older adults can be captured in developmental patterns that are meaningful for policy and practice. Analyses are based on 16-year longitudinal trajectories of physical, mental, and social functioning of participants in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam.

Literature has shown the serious impact of severe mental illness on the daily life of caregivers. We studied reported caregiver support practices by mental health nurses for use in the development of a nursing intervention. We aimed to explore current caregiver support practices by mental health nurses. Twenty-one participants completed semi-struct...

Background: Research on aging has consistently demonstrated an increased chance of survival for older adults who are integrated into rich networks of social relationships. Theoretical explanations state that personal networks offer indirect psychosocial and direct physiological pathways. We investigate whether effects on and pathways to mortality r...

Background: Social engagement (ScE) has powerful effects on well-being, but variation in individual engagement throughout the life course is wide. The trajectories may differ by gender and be affected by socioeconomic status (SES). However, long-term development of ScE is little studied and the effect of childhood SES on later life ScE remains obsc...

The recent increase in the number of older adults who need treatment for alcohol problems suggests increasing levels of substance use with aging. However, longitudinal studies that unravel cohort from aging effects observe that when people age, they generally limit alcohol use. There is much heterogeneity in changes in alcohol use among older adult...

Actief oud worden is de nieuwe norm geworden, en we zijn er van overtuigd geraakt dat als er al sprake is van disengagement, dat niet al begint vlak na de pensionering. Het ideaal van wat we in Nederland het ‘Zwitserleven’ noemen is als ondeugdelijk aan de kant gezet. Het is ‘onbetaalbaar, ouderwets, onrealistisch, onrechtvaardig, kortzichtig en oe...

Research on aging has consistently demonstrated increased chance of survival for older adults who are integrated into rich networks of personal relationships. Theoretical explanations are that personal relationships offer direct behavioral and physiological pathways to longevity, as well as buffer stress and provide coping resources during critical...

Divorce increases the risk of loneliness. With divorce increasingly becoming a normal life event, societal changes are now challenging this idea as regards to current cohorts. We hypothesize that the relative strong feelings of loneliness among divorcees, compared with married people, has diminished over time. Using 1992, 2002, and 2012 data sets o...