What happened to loneliness after older adults joined a community activity group?

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Loneliness and social support have a major impact on older adults’ health and can contribute to physical and mental wellbeing. With increasing age, social contacts and support typically decrease while loneliness increases. Group social engagement appears to have additional health benefits compared with socialising individually with friends and family, but further research is needed to confirm its benefits for older adults’ social wellbeing.

This one-year longitudinal mixed-methods study investigated the effect of joining a community group offering a range of social and physical activities on the social wellbeing of adults whose mean age was 70. It combined a quantitative survey of loneliness and social support among members of Life Activities Clubs Victoria, Australia (n = 28; three time points, analysed using linear mixed models), with a qualitative focus group study (n = 11, analysed using thematic analysis).

In the first year after joining, loneliness decreased significantly (p = 0.023), while social support showed a trend toward increasing (p = 0.056). The focus group confirmed these observations and suggested that social support may take longer than one year to develop. Focus groups also identified that membership provided important opportunities to develop new and diverse social connections through shared interests and experiences. These connections were key to improving members’ social wellbeing, especially their sense of feeling supported or connected and less lonely. Participants agreed that increasing connections was especially beneficial after significant life events such as retirement, moving to a new house or a partner becoming unwell.

The researchers concluded that joining a community group offering social and physical activities may improve older adults’ social wellbeing, particularly after events such as retirement or moving house that change social networks. They suggested that ageing policies and strategies would benefit from encouraging long-term participation in social groups to help people adapt to changes in later life and optimise healthy ageing.