Source: Xinhua

05-11-2009 11:11

Special Report:   Tech Max

LOS ANGELES, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Seniors who volunteer are more likely to be healthier and may live longer, new research findings show.

Altruistic activities enable seniors to live longer: study

Retirees over 65 who volunteered had less than half the risk of dying compared to their non-volunteering peers, according to a study published by Health Day News on Friday.

Volunteering your time doesn't just help others out, it probably benefits your health, too, noted the study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

The study included 6,360 retired people over 65 years of age who were enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in 2002.This study population is considered representative of older adults in the United States. The average age in the study was 78, and the study population was 60 percent female.

Whether or not the study participants volunteered was assessed by asking, "Have you spent any time in the past 12 months doing volunteer work for religious, educational, health-related or other charitable organizations?"

The researchers controlled the data to account for demographics, socioeconomic status, chronic health conditions, geriatric syndromes, functional limitations, a subject's propensity for volunteering, depression, cognition and self-rated health.

In this initial assessment, the researchers found that 12 percent of the 1,766 volunteers in the study died compared to 26 percent of the non-volunteers. After adjusting the data, the researchers said the association between volunteering and a lower risk of mortality wasn't as strong, but that it still existed.

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