The impact of mutual aid on mental health and perceived isolation among the single elderly: An examination of economic status

Aim This study aimed to identify patterns in mutual aid relationships between older people living alone and their relatives and neighbors, and to examine the impact of mutual aid relationship patterns on mental health and perceived isolation through the mediating effect of subjective economic status. Methods We conducted a survey with 5000 randomly selected adults aged 65 years or older, from the five official senior care service areas of city A in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Valid responses were received from 3941 participants (78.8%), of whom 436 participants from single‐person households constituted the study sample. Results Latent class analysis revealed four types of mutual aid: family; family and intra‐generational neighbors; no mutual aid; and family and multi‐generational neighbors. Regression analysis showed that the interaction effect between family and neighbors' mutual aid and subjective economic status was a significant predictor of depressive symptoms. Simple slope analysis clarified that subjective economic status had a negative effect on depressive symptoms for the non‐family/neighbors group, but not for the family/neighbors group. Furthermore, the interaction term between no mutual aid and subjective economic status was negatively associated with the fear of future isolation. Finally, the significantly negative effect observed was greater for the no mutual aid group than for the non‐no mutual aid group. Conclusions Mutual aid relationships are effective in improving the mental health and decreasing the fear of future isolation of older adults living alone who experience low economic status. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2021; 21: 555–560.