Extrovert’s delight: Volunteering and staying social key to excellent health in later years

by: John Anderer

TORONTO, Ontario — Solitude can certainly be nice in small doses, but social activity is a key component of human health and behavior. Now, researchers from the University of Toronto say staying social is especially important for older adults. Researchers tracked over 7,000 middle-aged and older Canadians for roughly three years, discovering that those who took part in volunteer work and recreational activities were both more likely to maintain excellent health over the course of the study and less likely to suffer from a range of physical, cognitive, mental, or emotional problems.

Study authors defined “successful aging” as freedom from any physical, cognitive, mental, or emotional conditions or hindrances preventing older individuals from daily activities, as well as high levels of self-reported happiness, good physical health, and mental well-being. Researchers were sure to only include people who were successfully aging at the start of the study. The end goal was to determine if social participation has a connection with an increased likelihood of maintaining excellent health.

Roughly 72 percent of those who participated in volunteer or recreational activities at the beginning of the project were still aging successfully three years later. Meanwhile, only two-thirds of participants who weren’t engaging in these activities were aging successfully by the end of the study period. Even after study authors accounted for a wide range of sociodemographic characteristics, the results still suggested that older adults who participated in recreational activities (15%) and volunteer or charity work (17%) were more likely to maintain excellent health over the course of the study, respectively.