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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Population based study of social and productive activities as predictors of survival among elderly Americans | | Author(s) | Thomas A Glass, Carlos Mendes de Leon, Richard A Marottoli |
| Journal title | British Medical Journal, vol 319, no 7208, 21 August 1999 |
| Pages | pp 478-483 |
| Keywords | Longevity ; Good Health ; Keeping fit ; Social characteristics [elderly] ; Recreation ; Self care capacity ; Social interaction ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | It is suggested that an exclusive focus on physical activity obscures the health benefits that may be associated with other, non-physical activities. The authors examined the relation between survival and three types of activities separately: social (including church attendance, visits to cinema, day trips, participation in social groups); productive (gardening, preparing meals, shopping, community work); and fitness (active sports or swimming, walking and physical exercise). Participants were from the New Haven, CT site of the Established Populations for Epidemiological Studies of the Elderly (EPESE), studied for mortality over 13 years. Social and productive activities that involve little or no enhancement of fitness are found to lower the risk of all cause mortality as much as fitness activities do. This suggests that in addition to increased cardiopulmonary fitness, activity may confer survival benefits through psychological pathways. Social and productive activities that require less physical exertion may complement exercise programmes and constitute alternative interventions for frail older people. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-021114003 A |
| Classmark | BGA: CD: CE: F: H: CA: TMA: 3J: 7T * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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