The purpose of this study was to identify the social network types of elders and to identify differences among latent classes by social network.

The data of 312 elders used in this study were collected from health, welfare, and other facilities and from elders living in the community. The interviews were conducted from July 16 to September 30, 2007 using a standard, structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, one way ANOVA with the SPSS 15.0 program and latent class analysis using Maximum Likelihood Latent Structure Analysis (MLLSA) program were used to analyze the data.

Using latent class analysis, social network types among older adults were identified as diverse for 58.0% of the sample, as family for 34.0%, and as isolated for 8.0%. The health status of respondents differed significantly by network type. Elders in diverse networks had significantly higher health status and elders in isolated networks had significantly lower physical health status on average than those in all other networks.

The results of this study suggest that these network types have important practical implications for health status of elders. Social service programs should focus on different groups based on social network type and promote social support and social integration.