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Background and purpose: Social engagement is an important active aging strategy to promote older adults' mental health. The purposes of this study were to compare social engagement in older populations around the world and explore associations with mental health outcomes. Materials and methods: An international cross‐sectional survey was conducted from 2017 to 2019. Data were retrieved from The International Social Survey Programme for a secondary data analysis across 30 countries. This study applied the Taxonomy of Social Activities and its six levels as operational definitions for a consistent concept of social engagement for international comparisons. Results: In total, 9403 older adults with a mean age of 72.85 ± 6.40 years responded. The highest levels of older adults' social engagement were found in Switzerland, Thailand, and New Zealand. Older adults of a higher age, with a lower educational level, who were permanently sick or disabled, who had no partner, who were widowed or whose civil partner had died, who lived alone, and who had lower self‐placement in society had significantly lower social engagement than did their counterparts. In the regression model, older adults' social engagement positively predicted general health, self‐accomplishment, and life satisfaction, but negatively predicted loneliness and depression. Conclusions: In aging societies worldwide, encouraging older adults' social engagement would be beneficial to promote mental health. Implications for nursing practice and health policies: Community professional nurses can develop strategies of social engagement based on the needs and sociodemographic factors of older adults to improve their mental health. Developing efficient strategies and local policies by learning from successful experiences in other countries is important to promote social engagement in aging societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As context may impact everyday technology (ET) use it is relevant to study this within different contexts. Aims: To examine the usefulness of the Everyday Technology Use Questionnaire (ETUQ) in different contexts by investigating and comparing (1) the level of challenge of ETs in the ETUQ and (2) the relevance of and perceived ability to use ET in samples of Swedish and Japanese older adults. Materials and methods: The Swedish and the Japanese samples (n = 86/86) were interviewed using the ETUQ about relevance of and perceived ability to use ET. Data were analyzed using Rasch analysis, chi square and a general linear model. Moreover, Differential Item Functioning (DIF) was investigated. Results: The hierarchy of ETs' level of challenge was generally stable in the two contexts. On group-level, the relevance was somewhat higher and the perceived ability to use ET significantly higher in the Swedish sample than in the Japanese. Conclusions and significance: The similarities and differences between the technological landscapes of Sweden and Japan could be detected by ETUQ, demonstrating its usefulness in both countries. The potential causes to the differences in relevance of and perceived ability to use ET between older adults in Sweden and Japan need further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rectangularization of human survival curves is associated with decreasing variability in the distribution of ages at death. This variability, as measured by the interquartile range of life table ages at death, has decreased from about 65 years to 15 years since 1751 in Sweden. Most of this decline occurred between the 1870s and the 1950s. Since then, variability in age at death has been nearly constant in Sweden, Japan, and the United States, defying predictions of a continuing rectangularization. The United States is characterized by a relatively high degree of variability, compared with both Sweden and Japan. We suggest that the historical compression of mortality may have had significant psychological and behavioral impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]