Helping others regularly slows cognitive decline in older adults

In the latest evidence that meaningful social connections bolster health, a team from The University of Texas at Austin and University of Massachusetts Boston has found that regular time spent helping outside the home significantly slows cognitive decline in middle-age and older adults.

The new study of more than 30,000 adults in the U.S. looking at individuals over two decades found that the rate of cognitive decline associated with aging fell by 15%-20% for people who formally volunteer their services or who help in more informal ways with neighbors, family or friends outside the home on a regular basis. This cognitive benefit was consistently observed when individuals devoted about two to four hours per week to helping others. The results were reported in the latest edition of the journal Social Science & Medicine and were based on a study funded by the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. 

"Everyday acts of support - whether organized or personal - can have lasting cognitive impact," said Sae Hwang Han, an assistant professor of human development and family sciences at UT who led the study. "What stood out to me was that the cognitive benefits of helping others weren't just short-term boosts but cumulative over time with sustained engagement, and these benefits were evident for both formal volunteering and informal helping. And in addition to that, moderate engagement of just two to four hours was consistently linked to robust benefits."

The study is one of the first to look simultaneously at the impact of volunteering in the formal sense and more informal types of helping, such as assisting neighbors, relatives or friends in need with things like getting to a health appointment, caring for children, lawn work or preparing taxes. While about 1 in 3 older Americans are reported to engage in scheduled or formal volunteering, more than half manage to help other people in their lives regularly in this more informal way.

Informal helping is sometimes assumed to offer fewer health benefits due to its lack of social recognition. But in fact, it was a pleasant surprise to find that it provides cognitive benefits comparable to formal volunteering."

Sae Hwang Han, assistant professor of human development and family sciences at UT

The researchers used longitudinal data from the national Health and Retirement Study, examining results from a representative sample of U.S. residents over the age of 51 dating back to 1998. The new study, which controlled for other contributing factors in volunteerism and helping behaviors such as wealth, physical and mental health, and education, found that age-related cognitive decline slowed as people began and sustained helping behaviors. That data suggests that greater gains may be expected in people who make helping behaviors a part of their routine, year over year.

"Conversely, our data show that completely withdrawing from helping is associated with worse cognitive function," Han said. "This suggests the importance of keeping older adults engaged in some form of helping for as long as possible, with appropriate supports and accommodations in place."

The paper offers the latest case for bringing a public health lens to discussions about volunteerism, helping and strengthening neighborhood relations, particularly in later life when diseases associated with cognitive decline and impairment, like Alzheimer's, tend to set in.

Another recent study, also led by Han, found that volunteering buffered the adverse effects of chronic stress on systemic inflammation - a known biological pathway linked to cognitive decline and dementia. The effect was especially pronounced among people with higher levels of inflammation.

Together, the two studies' findings suggest that helping behaviors can help boost brain health, whether by reducing the physiological wear and tear associated with stress or by fortifying social connections that bring psychological, emotional and cognitive benefits of their own. In the context of an aging society and increasing concerns about loneliness and isolation, the findings also provide an important basis for continuing to involve people in opportunities to help, even once cognitive decline has set in.

"Many older adults in suboptimal health often continue to make valuable contributions to those around them," Han said, "and they also may be the ones to especially benefit from being provided with opportunities to help."

Other authors on the study were former UT postdoctoral researcher Shiyang Zhang and Jeffrey Burr of the University of Massachusetts Boston.