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Canberra Today 20°/24° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Volunteers ‘live longer’

PEOPLE who volunteer may actually live longer than people who don’t, according to a recent survey.

The research, which was first published in August in the journal “Health Psychology”, reveals that people who volunteer for selfless reasons live longer than those who don’t lend a helping hand.

Sara Konrath and colleagues at the University of Michigan gathered these findings from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which followed a random sample of more than 10,000 Wisconsin residents from their high school graduation in 1957 until the present.

Konrath noted that participants’ motives varied between being oriented towards helping others, such as “I feel it is important to help others” or “Volunteering is an important activity to the people I know best,” and more self-oriented reasons, such as “Volunteering is a good escape from my own troubles,” or “Volunteering makes me feel better about myself.”

The findings showed that those who volunteered for more altruistic reasons had lower mortality rates than both people who did not volunteer and people who volunteered for self-oriented reasons.

Mandy Stevens, from Fundraising Directory, says volunteering is a well-accepted part of Australian culture and that 5.2 million Australians volunteer their time each year, equating to a combined contribution to the community of over 713 million hours. And the most common volunteer activity is fundraising which accounts for 48 per cent of total hours.

“I was delighted to learn that people who volunteer may live longer,” she said. “The fundraising community sector in Australia earns around $70+ billion in funds raised each year. This money is essential for schools, community groups etc, so hopefully this study will encourage even more people to lend a hand.”


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