Volunteers live longer

Sunday, 25. August 2013 - 11:50

Volunteers tend to be healthier and live for longer, according to a scientific review. Researchers found that those who regularly help out in their community were 20 per cent less likely to die prematurely than those who never volunteered. A review of 40 international studies found helping others was also associated with a positive effect on mental health, reducing depression and increasing life satisfaction. The study, published in the journal BMC Public Health, looked at the results from trials that had been running for between one and 30 years.

Benefits: Volunteering in the community could help people live 20 per cent longer, a study suggests.

However scientists said they were still unsure whether healthier people were more likely to have the time and energy to volunteer, or whether volunteering to help other people actually improved their health. Lead researcher Dr Suzanne Richards, from the University of Exeter Medical School, said: ‘Our review shows that volunteering is associated with improvements in health, but more work is needed to establish whether volunteering is actually the cause.

‘It is still unclear whether biological and cultural factors and social resources that are often associated with better health and survival are also associated with a willingness to volunteer in the first place. ‘The challenge now is going to be to encourage people from more diverse backgrounds to take up volunteering, and then to measure whether improvements arise for them.’

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health