Comm. impairments & social relationships of OAs (Palmer et al., 2018)

<b>Purpose: </b>Social contact is known to be vital for older adults’ mental and physical health but, because communication impairments often co-occur with other types of disability, it is difficult to generalize about the relative impact of a communication impairment on the social relationships of older adults. Specific aims of the study were to examine whether the severity of a communication impairment was associated with a range of social measures and to examine the association between these characteristics and psychological well-being.<b>Method: </b>Community-dwelling older adults ranging in age from 65 to 94 were recruited for the study of Communication, Health, Aging, Relationship Types and Support. The sample included 240 participants with communication disorders arising from a variety of etiologies including hearing impairment, voice disorders, head and neck cancer, and neurologic disease, as well as older adults without a communication disorder.<b>Results: </b>Communication impairment was a significant independent predictor for key characteristics of social relationships, including the number of friends in the social network, two types of social support, the frequency of social participation, and social self-efficacy. Communication impairment was also a significant predictor for higher levels of loneliness and depression. In addition, two distinct pathways between communication impairment and psychological well-being were identified, with social self-efficacy and reassurance of worth as mediators.<b>Conclusions:</b> Even after controlling for age, gender, health, and disability, communication impairment is a significant independent predictor for key aspects of the social function of older adults and demonstrates two distinct pathways to loneliness and depression.<br><b>Supplemental Appendix S1.</b> Study survey. <br><b>Supplemental Table S1.</b> International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes used to identify potential study participants.<br><br><b>Supplemental Table S2.</b> Multiple regressions for all social and psychological variables.<br>Palmer, A. D., Carder, P. C., White, D. L., Saunders, G., Woo, H., Graville, D. J., &amp; Newsom, J. T. (2018). The impact of communication impairments on the social relationships of older adults: Pathways to psychological well-being. <i>Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research</i>. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-S-17-0495

**研究目的：** 社交联系对老年人的身心健康至关重要，但由于沟通障碍（communication impairment）常与其他类型的残疾共发，难以笼统判断沟通障碍对老年人社会关系的相对影响。本研究的具体目标为：探究沟通障碍严重程度是否与一系列社会测量指标相关，并分析这些特征与心理福祉（psychological well-being）之间的关联。
**研究方法：** 本研究招募了年龄介于65至94岁之间的社区居住老年人，开展“沟通、健康、老龄化、关系类型与支持”相关研究。样本包含240名因多种病因导致沟通障碍的参与者，病因涵盖听力损伤、嗓音障碍、头颈癌及神经系统疾病，同时纳入无沟通障碍的老年人作为对照。
**研究结果：** 沟通障碍是老年人社会关系关键特征的显著独立预测因子，这些特征包括社交网络中的好友数量、两类社会支持、社会参与频率以及社交自我效能（social self-efficacy）。同时，沟通障碍可显著预测更高水平的孤独感与抑郁症状。此外，本研究明确了沟通障碍与心理福祉之间的两条独立通路，其中社交自我效能与价值感肯定发挥了中介作用。
**研究结论：** 即便在控制年龄、性别、健康状况与残疾情况的影响后，沟通障碍仍是老年人社会功能关键维度的显著独立预测因子，并证实了其通过两条独立通路影响孤独感与抑郁的发生。
**补充附录S1：** 研究调查问卷。
**补充表S1：** 用于识别潜在研究参与者的国际疾病分类第九版（International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, ICD-9）编码。
**补充表S2：** 所有社会与心理变量的多元回归分析结果。

Palmer, A. D., Carder, P. C., White, D. L., Saunders, G., Woo, H., Graville, D. J., & Newsom, J. T. (2018). 沟通障碍对老年人社会关系的影响：通往心理福祉的通路。*Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research*（《言语、语言与听力研究期刊》）. 提前在线发表。https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-S-17-0495