Influence of health status on social activity of older population

The economy suffers losses not only because of premature death but also due to poor health. It may lead to complete, or partial, loss of working capacity and the decrease of social activity. These problems affect all population groups, but it is the most common among older citizens. This situation requires the implementation of measures to maintain health and stimulate the efficient usage of older people's labor potential. In this regard, the purpose of this article was to analyze the impact of health status on social activities of older population. The information base of the study included data of monitoring concerning the quality of labor potential among population of the Vologda Oblast for 2018.Methodological aspects of the study are based on the concept of population's qualitative characteristics and the index approach, which was used to assess the status of health and social activity. It is shown that people who belong to older age group, in comparison with other groups, have low values of the need index concerning the achievement and social activity. In all selected age groups, lowest values of social activity were observed in cases when two conditions were simultaneously met: they were lower than median values of the physical health index and, for example, cognitive and creative potentials. It is revealed that social activity is higher in cases when indices of cognitive and creative potentials exceed the median level, but the physical health index, on the contrary, does not reach it. It indirectly characterizes the important role of cognitive and creative aspects in ensuring high social activity. The study determined that population of older age group has a competitive advantage which concerns a sufficiently high level of cognitive and intellectual potentials that partially compensate for low physical and mental health. It is shown that, in comparison with other studied age groups, the “loss” is insignificant in material terms, and the “loss” in labor productivity was not recorded at all.