Older people who volunteer are happier and healthier, according to the findings of a new study by researchers from the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care.
Staying active is very important to remain healthy and happy as we age. The best way to do so it to volunteer - that's what the findings of a new study suggest. Researchers from Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care found that older adults who volunteer are happier and healthier than older people that don't. For the study, researchers examined 73 studies published over the last 45 years involving adults aged 50-plus who were in formal volunteering roles.
"Our goal was to obtain a more comprehensive view of the current state of knowledge on the benefits of volunteering among older adults," said Dr. Nicole Anderson, lead author of the study in a press statement. "We discovered a number of trends in the results that paint a compelling picture of volunteering as an important lifestyle component for maintaining health and wellbeing in later years."
The researchers found that volunteering reduced the risk of depression, increased overall health, led to fewer functional limitations and increased longevity in older adults. Researchers also clarified that the older adult should volunteer about 100 annual hours, or 2-3 hours per week. The researchers also noted that feeling appreciated or needed as a volunteer appeared to amplify the relationship between volunteering and psychosocial wellbeing.
"Taken together, these results suggest that volunteering is associated with health improvements and increased physical activity -- changes that one would expect to offer protection against a variety of health conditions," said Dr. Anderson. "Indeed, a moderate amount of volunteering has been shown to be related to less hypertension and fewer hip fractures among seniors who volunteer compared to their matched non-volunteering peers."
This is one of the few studies to examine the association between volunteering and risk of dementia, and the association between volunteering and a host of other health conditions that put seniors at higher risk for dementia, such as diabetes and stroke.
"We encourage investigators to include more objective measures of cognitive functioning in future studies. Particularly interesting would be the inclusion of a more comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests, so that the association of volunteering with the risks of various forms of dementia and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment, could be ascertained," the researchers said.
The current study was published online in the journal Psychological Bulletin. The project was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
