Department of Sociology, 6019Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.
J Aging Health. 2023 Jan;35(1-2):108-124. doi: 10.1177/08982643221108020. Epub 2022 Jun 23.
Olfaction is an important correlate of later-life health, including cognition and mortality risk. Environmental enrichment protects against olfactory decline, yet little research considers the social context as a source of sensory enrichment or stimulation. This study examines how exposure to social complexity (i.e., diversity or novelty in social networks and activities) shapes later-life olfaction. Cross-sectional and longitudinal ordered logit models analyze data from 1,447 older adults interviewed at Rounds 1 and 2 of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project. Exposure to greater social complexity (larger social networks, greater network diversity) is associated with significantly better olfaction at baseline. Increases in network diversity and fewer network losses significantly protect against olfactory decline over time. Findings highlight the social context as an important, yet relatively overlooked source of sensory enrichment, and underscore the need for biological applications to integrate social life dynamics into studies of health trajectories.
嗅觉是晚年健康的一个重要指标，包括认知和死亡率风险。环境丰富可以预防嗅觉下降，但很少有研究将社会环境视为感官丰富或刺激的来源。本研究探讨了接触社会复杂性（即社交网络和活动中的多样性或新颖性）如何影响晚年嗅觉。横断面和纵向有序逻辑模型分析了来自国家社会生活、健康和老龄化项目第 1 轮和第 2 轮采访的 1447 名老年人的数据。接触更多的社会复杂性（更大的社交网络、更多的网络多样性）与基线时嗅觉明显更好相关。网络多样性的增加和网络损失的减少显著有助于随着时间的推移保护嗅觉不下降。研究结果强调了社会环境作为感官丰富的一个重要但相对被忽视的来源，并强调了生物应用将社会生活动态纳入健康轨迹研究的必要性。
