Helping Behavior and Self-Assessed Health in Middle-Aged and Elderly

Objectives: Existing research shows that helping behavior is associated with better health in later life. The purpose of this study is to test whether formal volunteering and informal helping activities reduce the rate of health decline in middle and later life.

Methods: Using the four waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) collected from the sample of 6,000 individuals aged 55 and over, a series of individual growth curve models were estimated to assess the effects of helping activities on health trajectories.

Results: Central to the findings of this research is that both volunteering and helping activities have an independent promoting effect on self-assessed health condition. Specifically, helping activities at the baseline, sustained involvement over a prolonged period of time, and concurrent engagement of both activities are all associated with a slower rate of health deterioration across the waves. Moreover, the protective effects on health accumulate with the degree of involvement.

Discussion: These findings are consistent with Activity Theory that postulates social participation as a crucial component of healthy aging. The results are net effects after controlling for demographic characteristics and predictors for poor health at the baseline.