This article examines the main approaches and factors of the social health of elderly people within the regional aspect. The following conclusion is made: social health as a form of emotional- value consciousness emerges as the result of people subjectively experiencing their specific condition, and it changes under the influence of a person’s internal structure and the surrounding social environment. Analyzed is the structure of those factors which affect social health, with the former including subjective and objective components. The subjective characteristics of elderly people’s social health include the following: personal features, values, emotional state in general, confidence in their future. Objective characteristics focus on such components as: age, education, health, material and marital status. Changes in social health are affected by the current socio- economic and ethno-political situation in the country and on its outskirts. That’s why it is essential to examine the social health of elderly people within a regional aspect. The Republic of Buriatiya, being a multi-ethnic region, is characterized by multiple religions, a heterogenic socio-economic environment, being situated on the border, and somepeculiar cultural traditions. A harsh climate, low population density and a large distance from Russia’s political and cultural centers define the republic as a region which is isolated from the country’s mainstream socio-cultural environment. These peculiarities form a unique environment, which impacts the population’s social health. Based on the research conducted, a conclusion is drawn that the age groups of elderly people are dissimilar, which is demonstrated by the way they evaluate their life satisfaction, material status, values, and confidence in the future. The following factors seriously impact social health: age, education, marital status. The following values are considered to be important among elderly people (in descending order): home, family, health, material well-being, confidence in the future, feeling of security. These components influence the level and degree of elderly people’s involvement in institutional relations, and they are directly connected to social health.

aging of the population, older people, social well-being factors, methods of measurement, subjective life satisfaction, the region, the Republic of Buriatiya.

Beliaeva L. A. Uroven’ i kachestvo zhizni. Problemy izmerenija i interpretacii [The Level and Quality of Life. Challenges in Measuring and Interpreting]. Sociologicheskie issledovanija, 2009, no 1, pp. 33–42.

Chekanova E. E. Social’nye processy starenija: strukturalistsko- konstruktivistsky analiz [Social Aging Processes: Structuralist and Constructivist Analysis]. Saratov, Nauchnaja Kniga, 2004. 312 p.

Eliutina M. E. Gerontologicheskoe napravlenie v strukture chelovecheskogo bytija [Gerontological Direction in the Structure of Human Existence]. Saratov, SSU publ., 1999. 141 p.

Evrazijsky monitor. Issledovanie v stranah SNG [Eurasian Monitor. CIS Countries Survey]. 2015. «CIRKON» Research Group Official website. URL: http://www.zircon.ru/publications/evraziyskiy-monitor-issledovaniya- v-stranakh-sng/ [date of visit: 10.04.16].

Golovaha E. I., Panina N. V., Gorbachik A. P. Izmerenie social’nogo samochuvstvija: test IISS [The Measurement of Social Wellbeing: IISS Test]. Sociologija: 4M, 1998, no 10, pp. 45–71.

Gorshkov M. K. Rossiyskoe obschestvo kak ono est’: (opyt sociologicheskoy diagnostiki) [Russian Society as it is: (Experience of Sociological Diagnosis)]. Second ed. Moscow, Novy Khronograf, 2016. 416 p.

Grigor’eva I. A. Social’naja politika i pozhiloe naselenie v sovremennoy Rossii: vyzovy i vozmozhnosti [Social Policy and Older Population in Modern Russia: Challenges and Opportunities]. Mir Rossii, 2006, Vol. 15, no 1, pp. 29–49.

Indeksy social’nogo samochuvstvija [The Indices of Social Well- being]. 2015. VCIOM Official website. URL: http://wciom.ru/index. php?id=236&uid=115390 [date of visit: 10.04.16].

Inglehart R. Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1990. 504 p.

Kovaliova N. G. Pozhilye liudi: social’noe samochuvstvie [Elderly: Social Well-being]. Sociologicheskie issledovanija, 2001, no 7, pp. 73–79.

Kozyreva P. M. Social’naja adaptacija naselenija Rossii v postsovetsky period [Social Adaptation of the Population of Russia in the Post-Soviet Period]. Sociologicheskie issledovanija, 2011, no 6, pp. 24–36.

Krasnova O. V., Kozlova T. Z. Starshee pokolenie: genderny aspekt [The Older Generation: the Gender Dimension]. Moscow, IS RAS, 2007. 220 p.

Krupec Y. N. Social’noe samochuvstvie kak integral’ny pokazatel’ adaptirovannosti [Social Well-being as an Integral Component of Adaptation]. Sociologicheskie issledovanija, 2003, no 4, pp. 143–144.

Levinson A. G. Institucionalnye ramki starosti: starost’ kak gender [Institutional Framework of Old Age: Old Age as Gender]. Vestnik obschestvennogo mnenija, 2011, no 3 (109), pp. 52–81.

Maximova S. G. Osobennosti funkcionirovanija i razvitija sistemy social’nogo obsluzhivanija lic pozhilogo i starcheskogo vozrasta v sovremennom rossiyskom regione na rubezhe XX–XXI vv. [Features of Functioning and Development of the System of Social Care of Elderly and Senile Age in Modern Russian Region at the turn of XX-XXI Centuries]. Barnaul, ASU publ., 2006. 360 p.

Mihaylova L. I. Social’noe samochuvstvie i vosprijatie buduschego rossijanami [Social Well-being and Future Perception of Russians]. Sociologicheskie issledovanija, 2010, no 3, pp. 45–50.

Modernizacija social’noy struktury sovremennogo rossiyskogo obschestva [Modernisation of the Social Structure of Modern Russian Society]. Ed. By Z. T. Golenkova. Moscow, IS RAS, 2008. 287 p.

Naselenie – 2015 [Population – 2015]. Buriatstat (Buriatia`s Branch of the FSSS of Russian Federation) Official website. URL: http://burstat.gks. ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_ts/burstat/ru/statistics/population/ [date of visit: 10.04.16].

Osinsky I. I., Butueva Z. A. Social’noe samochuvstvie: poniatie, faktory formirovanija i pokazateli izmerenija [Social Well-being: Concept, Factors of Formation and Measurement Indicators]. Vestnik Buriatskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2015, Vol. 14 «Filosofija, sociologija, politologija, kul’turologija», pp. 38–45.

Panina N. V. Index zhiznennoy udovletvorionnosti [Index of Well-being]. LIFeLINE i drugie novye metody psihologii zhiznennogo puti. Moscow, Progress, 1993, pp. 107–114.

Petrova L. E. Social’noe samochuvstvie molodiozhi [Social Well-being of the Youth]. Sociologicheskie issledovanija, 2000, no 12, pp. 50–55.

Reyting regionov RF po kachestvu zhizni –2014 [Rating of Russian Regions on Life Quality]. «RIA Rating» Official website. URL: http://vid1. rian.ru/ig/ratings/life_2014.pdf [date of visit: 10.04.16].

Rogozin D. M. Testirovanie voprosov o social’nom samochuvstvii [Test Questions about Social Well-being]. Social’naja real’nost’, 2007, no 2, pp. 97–113.

Smol’kin A. A. Paradoxy otnoshenija k pozhilym liudiam v sovremennoy Rossii [Paradoxes of the Attitudes towards Older People in Modern Russia]. Sociologichesky zhurnal, 2008, no 3, pp. 106–121.

Tikhonova N. E. Social’naja struktura Rossii: teorii i real’nost’ [The Social Structure of Russia: Theory and Reality]. Moscow, Novy khronograf, IS RAS, 2014. 408 p.

Toschenko J. T., Harchenko S. V. Social’noe nastroenie [Social Mood]. Moscow, Academia, 1996. 196 p.

Voz’mitel’ A. A. Obraz zhizni: tendencii i harakter izmeneniy v poreformennoy Rossii [Lifestyle: Trends and in Character of Changes of Post-reform Russia]. Moscow, IS RAS, 2012. 230 p.