Volunteering is Associated with Delayed Mortality in Older People: Analysis of the Longitudinal Study of Aging

@article{Harris2005VolunteeringIA,
  title={Volunteering is Associated with Delayed Mortality in Older People: Analysis of the Longitudinal Study of Aging},
  author={Alex H. S. Harris and Carl E. Thoresen},
  journal={Journal of Health Psychology},
  year={2005},
  volume={10},
  pages={739 - 752}
}
The Longitudinal Study of Aging (LSOA) assessed the health and social functioning of a representative sample of 7527 American community-dwelling older people (> 70 years). We tested the hypothesis that frequent volunteering is associated with less mortality risk when the effects of socio-demographics, medical status, physical activity and social integration are controlled. We used Cox proportional hazards analyses to assess the unadjusted and adjusted associations between frequency of… 
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The Impact of Volunteering and Its Characteristics on Well-being After State Pension Age: Longitudinal Evidence From the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

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The beneficial effect of volunteering appeared to stop among respondents who stopped volunteering between waves, and the best outcomes were observed among those participating in higher numbers of activities, regardless of whether or not these were classed as formal or informal, and who felt appreciated for their work.

A prospective study of volunteerism and hypertension risk in older adults.

Those who had volunteered at least 200 hr in the 12 months prior to baseline were less likely to develop hypertension than nonvolunteers and there was no association between volunteerism and hypertension risk at lower levels of volunteer participation.

Does volunteering moderate the relation between functional limitations and mortality?

Motives for volunteering are associated with mortality risk in older adults.

Replicating prior work, respondents who volunteered were at lower risk for mortality 4 years later, especially those who volunteered more regularly and frequently, but volunteering behavior was not always beneficially related to mortality risk: Those who volunteered for self-oriented reasons had a mortality risk similar to nonvolunteers.

Volunteering is prospectively associated with health care use among older adults.

Volunteering and mortality risk: a partner-controlled quasi-experimental design.

This study provides further evidence that the lower mortality associated with volunteering is unlikely to be due to health selection or to residual confounding arising from unmeasured selection effects within households, and increases the plausibility of a direct causal effect.

Does social activity decrease risk for institutionalization and mortality in older people?

Collective social activity may be associated with a reduced risk for mortality and institutionalization in older people and further studies on the mechanisms underlying the association between social activity and health are needed.

Predictors of 30-year mortality in depressed and comparison samples.

...

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