Volunteering and Fun Activities Enhance Quality of Life: Canadian Study

“Although the study’s observational nature prohibits the determination of causality, it makes intuitive sense that social activity is associated with successful aging,” says first author, Mabel Ho, a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW) and the Institute of Life Course and Aging (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Is Social Participation Associated with Successful Aging among Older Canadians? Findings from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA)

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). “Being socially active is important no matter how old we are. Feeling connected and engaged can boost our mood, reduce our sense of loneliness and isolation, and improve our mental health and overall health.”

Positive News for Aging Adults and Their Families, Says Researcher

Some medical professionals are now prescribing social activities for their patients, called ‘social prescribing’, a non-pharmacological intervention that integrates primary care with community services. Social prescribing can be used to encourage older adults to engage in volunteering and recreational activities.

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“It is encouraging that there are ways to support our physical, cognitive, mental, and emotional well-being as we age. This is wonderful news for older adults and their families who may anticipate that precipitous decline is inevitable with age,” says senior author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Director of the Institute for Life Course & Aging and Professor at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. “It is important for older adults, families, practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to work together to create an environment that supports a vibrant and healthy later life.”

The modified concept of successful aging introduced in this study is more inclusive than earlier studies and encompasses both objective and subjective measures of optimal aging. Most previous research on successful aging classified those with any chronic health conditions as not “aging successfully”. In the current study, respondents could still be classified as “aging successfully” if they had chronic illness, as long as they can engage in various daily activities and are free of disabling chronic pain. The revised definition also incorporates older adults’ subjective perception of their aging process, physical health and mental health, as well as their self-reported emotional well-being such as happiness and life satisfaction. Most earlier studies had ignored the older adults’ subjective experience of aging.

The study was published online this week, in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. It uses longitudinal data from the baseline wave (2011-2015) and the first follow-up wave (2015-2018) of data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) to examine factors associated with optimal aging. The CLSA included 7,651 respondents who were aged 60 years or older at wave 2 who were in optimal health during the baseline wave of data collection. The sample was restricted to those who were in excellent health at baseline, which was only 45% of the respondents.

Reference :

1. Is Social Participation Associated with Successful Aging among Older Canadians? Findings from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) – (https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/12/6058)

Source: Eurekalert