Social health was mapped using the OSLO scale, which contains three questions:
How many people are you so close to that you can count on them if you have serious personal problems?
1. None/2. 1 or ⅔. 3 to 5/4. 6 or more
How much concern do people show in what you are doing?
1. A lot of concern and interest/2. Some concern and interest/3. Uncertain/4. Little concern and interest/5. No concern and interest
How easy is it to get practical help from neighbours if you should need it?
1. Very easy/2. Easy/3. Possible/4. Difficult/5. Very difficult
The scores of the three questions were added together. For this, the scores of the last two questions were reversed (1=5,2=4, …). The sum of the scores was then used to classify individuals into groups of “limited perceived quality of social support” (score of 3 to 8) and “moderate to strong perceived quality of social support” (score of 9 to 14).