Beyond single indicators of social networks: a LISREL analysis of social ties among the elderly.
While the health promoting influences of social networks have been shown in a number of studies, little attention has been paid to measurement issues within the field of epidemiology. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new set of measures of social networks for use in epidemiological research on the elderly. We use confirmatory factor analysis to test a multidimensional model of social networks using data from a large epidemiologic study of community-dwelling adults age 65 and over (U.S.A.). Confirmatory factor analysis conducted using LISREL showed that our model provides a good fit to the data after several adjustments for correlated measurement error were introduced. Based on this analysis, we developed new measures of four dimensions and a summary index of social networks. Bivariate relationships between our new measures and several sociodemographic variables of interest are also presented.
Glass
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Harvard School of Public Health, Department of health and Social Behavior, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Mendes de Leon
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Seeman
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Berkman
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D000368:Aged; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors