The main objective of this study is to examine – in a dynamic way – linkages between social participation and health in a sample of elderly individuals participating in four waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) between the years 2004-2013 from ten European countries. The study aimed to ascertain the extent to which associations between social participation and three measures of health (self-reported health, ADL and IADL) could be explained by non-observed fixed confounding factors. Fixed effects logistic regression models are used to determine the relationship between social participation and health, adjusting for time-invariant unobserved individual heterogeneity. Results show that uptake and continuation of social activities are associated with decreased likelihood of poor self-reported health and limitations in ADL or IADL. After adjusting for fixed confounding factors, however, changes in social participation levels were no longer significantly related to IADL limitations and to all the elderly men’s health outcomes. These results extend previous findings, suggesting that associations between social participation and health may reflect effects of common factors associated with social participation and health, rather than a direct causal link.