Volunteering Extend Life Of Seniors

By Author: Red Wiseman
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"If people could give a little more of their time with expecting nothing in return, really giving from the heart, they will reap rewards that they didn't expect," says humanitarian Tina Turbin (http://TinaTurbin.com). Tina has long been an advocate for volunteer work and studies back up her statements.

A University of Michigan study found that seniors who volunteer as little as an hour a week volunteering are helping themselves too. The study, published in the "Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences", shows that there is a connection between increased chances of survival when people do moderate levels of volunteer activity.

"Quite a few people assume that older volunteers should benefit in terms of better health and well-being," says Marc A. Musick, a research fellow at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and author of the study. "This study is one of the first to document that's true in a nationally representative sample of older Americans."

The study helped to establish that that people live longer because they volunteer. Previously, it was supposed that people who lived longer and ...
... were healthier were more likely to volunteer.

These conclusions come from data analyzed on 1,211 older adults. The researchers collected information through face-to-face interviews, following respondents over seven-and-a-half years, from 1986 to 1994.

During a series of interviews, seniors were asked whether they had volunteered in the past year for one or more groups and, if so, approximately how much time they had spent volunteering.

About 35%, a proportion similar to that found in other national studies of seniors, reported doing some volunteer work in the past year. The amount of time volunteered ranged from less than 20 hours a year (less than two hours a month) up to 160 hours (about a few hours a week). A few respondents also reported doing more.

The study took into account a wide range of variables related to longevity, including health conditions, physical activity, education, income, marital status and social activity. Using these and other factors, the researchers found that seniors who volunteered between a few hours and 40 hours a year were less likely to die over the next seven-and-a-half years than those who didn't volunteer at all.

The study also found that volunteering for a greater number of hours did not reduce the likelihood of death, and even tended to increase it. "This finding is consonant with the role-strain hypothesis," says Musick. "For older adults, taking on too much volunteer activity may ... offset the potential beneficial effects of volunteering."

Musick and colleagues also found that the protective effects of volunteering were strongest among older men and women who had low levels of social interaction, seldom seeing or talking to anyone other than their spouses or the person with whom they lived.

Musick believes that more research is needed to more precisely identify the factors responsible for creating the protective effects of volunteering. One possibility is that volunteering provides meaning and purpose in people's lives. Such qualities may in turn have protective effects on mortality and other health outcomes.
About Author:
Red Wiseman is an avid and intelligent writer and researcher in the Humanities, Arts and Sciences. Wiseman is always on a quest to expand his horizons and those of others via his written and spoken words.