Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: While existing studies have shown that social participation benefits health, relatively few have explored its impact on healthcare utilization. Moreover, most prior studies relied on cross-sectional data, conflating between-person differences with within-person change. This study examine the impact of social participation on healthcare utilization in longitudinal data distinguishing between- and within-person associations.
METHODS: The data was derived from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, including 4,732 community-dwelling older adults (aged 50-93 years), 70% Caucasian, 61% female) who had records of social participation and health care utilization over years 2012, 2016 and 2020.
RESULTS: Results from random intercept cross-lagged panel models showed that, at the between-person level, individuals with higher average levels of social participation exhibited increased utilization of preventive services, reduced medication consumption, decreased likelihood of polypharmacy, and higher out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures. At the within-person level, higher-than-usual social participation was associated with concurrent lower-than-usual hospital admissions and length of stay, as well as concurrent and subsequent (four years later) higher-than-usual preventive service use.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight distinct between- and within-person pathways linking social participation to healthcare use in later life. In sum, this study establishes a foundation for the development of interventions, including social prescribing and community engagement initiatives.