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Late-Life Volunteering and Trajectories of Physical Health

University of Pittsburgh, PA

The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal relationship between volunteering engagement and trajectories of physical health. Using three-wave panel data from the Americans' Changing Lives survey, the author tested the association between volunteering engagement and physical health after controlling for health variables from previous waves. Volunteering engagement was measured through volunteer status and hours. Physical health was measured through self-rated health, functional dependency, and chronic conditions. Findings indicated that volunteering engagement was associated with improved self-rated health and decreased functional dependency but not with the number of chronic conditions. Volunteering is a social approach to health maintenance in the older population, and the findings of this study add to the literature suggesting that volunteering probably leads to positive outcomes, but the relationship is also related to resource, status, and network variables.

Key Words: formal volunteering • older volunteers • physical health

This version was published on August 1, 2009

Journal of Applied Gerontology, Vol. 28, No. 4, 524-533 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0733464808327454


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