Ordinal dispersion of ratings of social participation as a function of age from 70 years of age among the H-70 panel, Gothenburg, Sweden

One of the traits of ageism is the categorization of the aged into stereotypes. One such concept is that old people participate less socially and are lonely. If the variation among the aged is greater than among younger persons, the stereotype is increasingly misrepresenting the aging population. Such variation is rarely studied in properties assessed by ordinal scale measurements. Is the variation in social participation measured on ordinal scale increasing as a function of age? A measurement of ordinal dispersion was used. The data was from the longitudinal-studied random sample of one thousand one hundred and forty-eight 70-year-old persons born on 1901/1902 who lived in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1971. This sample has been referred to as the H70 sample. Seven aspects of social participation were assessed by interviews. In all but one aspects of social participation there was an increase in dispersion by increasing age. This increase in dispersion by increasing age is not in accordance with a stereotype concept of aging. This result points to an increased risk of ageism by increasing age as the dispersion in social participation increases with age in several aspects.