English summary: SOCIAL ACTIVITY AND 12-YEAR SURVIVAL IN THE ELDERLY

The aim of this population-based 12-year follow-up study was to determine the association between participation in social activities and survival in an elderly Finnish population. The study included 449 men and 631 women aged 65 years or over, living in Lieto, Finland.

Social activity was measured by the frequency of participation in seven kinds of activities: family meetings, cultural events, visits to the library, eating out or dancing, religious events, community occasions, meetings of various associations, and attending adult community college.

Survival distributions were represented as Kaplan-Meier survival curves. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyse the association between religious attendance and mortality after controlling for potential confounders.

Participation in cultural events, family meetings, community occasions, meetings of various associations, and eating out or dancing were related to lower mortality in men. In women, participation in cultural events, religious events, family meetings and visits to the library were related to lower mortality. After controlling for socio-demographic and health variables, the association between family meetings and lower mortality remained significant both in men and in women. In women, attendance of religious events was also related to lower mortality.