Search

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]

Medical associations not only organize their members' interests but also exercise professional authority within the field of health policy. An important aspect of professional authority is the medical profession's ability to position itsel f in relation to national health policy and whether its command of professional knowledge enables the profession to claim exclusive authority for reflecting on health policy. This article analyzes and compares how medical associations claim authority over health policy and how they reposition their claims in light of perceived contestations to medical authority in public debates or from the political system. The study is based on a qualitative, descriptive analysis of 975 editorials in the medical associations' lead journals in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Denmark over a period of 60 years. The analysis explores the trajectories of authority claims in the three countries and how professional authority claims may be reconfigured to reflect external changes in health policy institutions. Whereas all the medical associations were highly critical of stateorganized health systems in the 1950s and early 1960s, the British and Danish associations seem to shift positions entirely after national health systems are gradually implemented and the associations begin to present themselves as these public institutions' strongest supporters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]