Social Engagement Variables
VariableData TypeDescriptionAllowable Codes
wrkingintegerAre currently working at a job?
1 Yes
2 No
8 Don't know
9 Refused
Null Missing
wrkfullpartintegerFull-time or part-time?
1 Part-time
2 Full-time
8 Don't know
9 Refused
Null Missing
churchfreqintegerHow often do you go to religious services?
1 Every day or almost every day
2 Several times a week
3 Several times a month
4 Several times a year
5 Once a year or less
8 Don't know
9 Refused
Null Missing
museumfreqintegerHow often do you go to museums?
othsocialintegerDo you participate in any activities or groups outside the house, such as a senior center, public service, etc.?
1 Yes
2 No
8 Don't know
9 Refused
Null Missing

socialeng Algorithm

(1) Recode the wrking, wrkfullpart to a single variable 'work', and recode the churchfreq, museumfreq and othsocial variables in order to transform their values to a meaningful consistent 0-2 range so that a scoring algorithm can be more easily applied across the resulting 4 variable set. The recoding will eliminate the "Don't Knows" and "Refused" values.
(2) Count the number of the four resulting recoded variables where the value ranges 0-2 as valid. Variables that have a value corresponding to don't know, refused, or null will be excluded.
(3) At least 3 of the 4 recoded variable must have a valid value in order to a social engagement score to be calculated. Otherwise, a score is not be computed and will be missing.
(4) When there are at least 3 variables with valid scores, calculate the social engagement score by summing the 4 recalculated variables where the value is not null or missing.

 

Recode and Calculate Score for Social Engagement
New Recoded VariableRecoding MethodCoding
work if wrking = 2 then work = 0
if wrkfullpart = 1 then work = 1
if wrkfullpart = 2 then work = 2
0 Not working
1 Work part-time
2 Work full-time
Null Not mapped, missing
rchurchfreq if churchfreq = 5 then rchurchfreq = 0
if churchfreq in (3,4) then rchurchfreq = 1
if churchfreq in (1,2) then rchurchfreq = 2
0 Hardly ever
1 Sometimes
2 Frequently
Null Not mapped, missing
rmuseumfreq if museumfreq = 5 then rmuseumfreq = 0
if museumfreq = 4 then rmuseumfreq = 1
if museumfreq in (1,2,3) then rmuseumfreq = 2
0 Hardly ever
1 Sometimes
2 Frequently
Null Not mapped, missing
rothsocial if othsocial = 2 then rothsocial = 0
if othsocial = 1 then rothsocial = 2
0 No activities outside of home
2 Yes, do engage in outside activities
Null Not mapped, missing
If at least 3 of the recoded variables are not null or missing then
socialeng = sum (work + rchurchfreq + rmuseumfreq + rothsocial)