| dc.description.abstract | There was a dearth of information on the relationship between social activities
and survival of Nigerians at older age. This study provides some knowledge on the influence of social activity on the longevity of some Nigerians in Oyo State. The main purpose of the study was to identify the relationship between social
activities and survival of the aged (65+) in Idikan area of Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria, after
adjusting for potential confounders. This was a retrospective study, and a secondary analysis of data generated from a larger longitudinal prospective study. The study population consisted of all the elderly
persons, aged 65 years and above living in Idikan area of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria who
were recruited into the Ibadan-Indianapolis Dementia Research Project at the initial stage in 1992/1993. The sampling method adopted was a total sampling of the entire study population. Detailed information on the subjects' socio demographic background, life style and health
history were collected at baseline in 1992/1993 with mortality follow-up of 17 years. Simple
descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data and appropriate test statistics used to
investigate relationship between variables. Kaplan Meier Curve and Cox regression model
were used to describe and model survival from the start of the study to the end, examining the
influence of the variables collected on survival and adjusting for potential confounders with
p-value <-0.05 and a 95% confidence interval. SPSS 11.0 for Windows was used to run the
entire analyses. The studied population size was N= 2, 485. About 9% of the population was of age
85 years and above with majority (72.1 %) between the age of 65-74 years and a male to
female ratio of 1:2. A higher proportion of those who had impaired cognition, not socially
active and males had died including those ever smoke and drink. The overall median survival time for the 17 years mortality fo llow up period was estimated to be 8 years with the
probabi lity of surviving past it, approximately half. Kaplan Meir Curve showed that those
who were not socially active presented with a poor survival than their counterpart and this
was statistically significant at 5% levels. Cox regression model result showed that
participation in social activities, gender, age, literacy status, presence of chronic disease(s) and cognitive status had influence on survival except for living arrangement, alcohol
consumption and smoking that were not significant at p :5 0.05. The study showed that those
who were socially active were almost one and a half times more likely to live longer than
those who were not socially active with p-value of 0.000 and a 95% C.I of 1.358 to 1.743.
Conclusion: Participation in social activity was found to be preventive measure against early
death. It contributed considerably to achieving longevity and these highlights the need to
consider formulating programs surrounded with social activities for elderly people in the
society, aimed at promoting longer life. | en_US |
