Pildoo Sung

Associate Professor of Sociology · Hanyang University

Social capital & trust Health & well-being Social networks & loneliness Family caregiving

About Me

I am a sociologist studying how social relationships and family processes shape health and well-being across the life course. My work brings together social gerontology, medical sociology, social network analysis, and longitudinal methods, drawing on national panel studies of older adults in South Korea and Singapore as well as cross-national surveys such as the ISSP.

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Hanyang University. Previously, I was an Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Ageing Research and Education, Duke-NUS Medical School. I received my Ph.D. in Sociology from the National University of Singapore.

For a fuller overview, see my research page, publications, or teaching.

Selected Publications

JDR

Oral Health-Related Quality of Life and Social Engagement: Gender Differences

Pildoo Sung, Yanan Zhang, Miseon Kang, and 1 more author

Journal of Dental Research, 2026

Online first

DOI Bib HTML

@article{sung2026oral,
  title = {Oral Health-Related Quality of Life and Social Engagement: Gender Differences},
  author = {Sung, Pildoo and Zhang, Yanan and Kang, Miseon and Kang, Sou Hwan},
  journal = {Journal of Dental Research},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Online first},
  doi = {10.1177/00220345261438375},
}

Soc. Networks

Getting Lonely and Isolated? Transitions in Social Isolation Profiles Over Time and Factors Associated with Them Among Older Adults

Pildoo Sung, Angelique Chan, Abhijit Visaria, and 1 more author

Social Networks, 2026

DOI Bib HTML

@article{sung2026isolation,
  title = {Getting Lonely and Isolated? Transitions in Social Isolation Profiles Over Time and Factors Associated with Them Among Older Adults},
  author = {Sung, Pildoo and Chan, Angelique and Visaria, Abhijit and Lee, June May-Ling},
  journal = {Social Networks},
  volume = {85},
  pages = {98--107},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.socnet.2025.12.005},
}

J. Gerontol. B

Sharing in Caring: Family Caregiving Task-Sharing Patterns for Older Adults in Singapore

Jeremy Lim-Soh, Pildoo Sung, Ha-Linh Quach, and 1 more author

The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 2025

DOI Bib HTML

@article{limsoh2025sharing,
  title = {Sharing in Caring: Family Caregiving Task-Sharing Patterns for Older Adults in Singapore},
  author = {Lim-Soh, Jeremy and Sung, Pildoo and Quach, Ha-Linh and Malhotra, Rahul},
  journal = {The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences},
  volume = {80},
  number = {1},
  pages = {gbae186},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1093/geronb/gbae186},
}

Int. Sociol.

The Relationship among Generalized Trust, Social Networks, and Social Resources across 30 Countries

Joonmo Son and Pildoo Sung

International Sociology, 2024

DOI Bib HTML

@article{son2024trust,
  title = {The Relationship among Generalized Trust, Social Networks, and Social Resources across 30 Countries},
  author = {Son, Joonmo and Sung, Pildoo},
  journal = {International Sociology},
  volume = {39},
  number = {4},
  pages = {375--398},
  year = {2024},
  doi = {10.1177/02685809241251770},
}