While it is clear that health status is important in determining morale, and that social contact also contributes to morale, the interaction of health status and social contact on morale is not well understood. Elderly frail community residents (N=40) were interviewed twice in a 1-year period about their contact with friends, grandchildren, siblings, and other family members, and about their desire for more contact with these people, in an attempt to understand the relationship between initial health status, change in health status, and social contact. The relationship of health status change and social contact to morale scores on the Bradburn Affect Balance Scale was also examined. Results from Time 1 and Time 2 interviews showed that changes in objectively and subjectively defined health status were associated with different social contact patterns, but not with levels of morale; subjects showing an increase in number of health conditions reported more contact with their children at Time 2. Declines in subjective health ratings were correlated with less actual, but more desired, contact with friends, while declines in objective health correlated with less desire for contact with friends. Both actual contact and desire for more contact were related to morale at the second time of measurement. (NRB)