As we’ve previously posted, social connections in your life appear to be critical for all sorts of health parameters as you get older. Covid underscored that even for the best of reasons, isolating older adults can cause serious negative consequences to their physical and emotional well-being. Even “weak ties,” i.e., the brief social pleasantries you can have by chance when you speak to someone in the park or in a store, are valuable for making you feel connected, and new research out of Canada underscores just how important that feeling of connection and social participation is as you get older.

Published in The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, this new research out of the University of Toronto analyzed data from more than 7000 older Canadians (aged 60 and older).  Researchers followed this cohort for 3 years and those who were part of the study had excellent health at its beginning. The results showed that older adults who are regularly engaged in volunteer or recreational activities were more likely to remain in excellent health at the end of 3 years in comparison to those who said they were not involved in these sorts of social activities. The active and engaged participants were deemed to be aging “successfully” and were also less likely than their non-engaged counterparts to have developed physical, cognitive, mental, or emotional problems. The researchers defined “success” with objective parameters of healthy aging (meaning they had no barriers to participating in daily activities) and the subjective perception of the participants. So, a “successful” aging participant could still be one who has some sort of chronic illness, but if he or she felt happy and in good physical and mental health, that counted toward a positive result. The study underscored the value of what physicians are now calling “social prescribing,” i.e., promoting and recommending social activities as a non-medical way to support healthy aging.

Another recent article in the journal Nature addresses the health benefits of social participation, this time in relation to lowering the risk of a dementia diagnosis. While conclusive evidence suggesting cause and effect does not exist, this article analyzed existing data from observational studies and reported that greater social participation in midlife and late life is associated with a 30-50% lower subsequent dementia risk. Further, the article reports: “There is growing epidemiological evidence for an association between aspects of social participation and risk of dementia. Accumulating evidence suggests that having less engagement in social activities is associated with a high relative risk of dementia.” Adding to this apparent positive news regarding social connections and cognitive health, the American Heart Association (AHA) also recently endorsed the value of volunteering (another “connected” activity), noting that volunteers “have less depression, less anxiety, higher self-esteem, and higher life satisfaction” among other positives. Of course, the AHA also made clear that volunteering is connected to better heart health and less stress.

So, in the presence of mounting and continuing evidence, the reasons for maintaining and even improving social connections as you get older are becoming more clear. Whether for physical health, cognitive well-being or to support your mental health, keeping connected on a regular basis with other people seems to be good medicine for healthier aging. And if you want to throw in some exercise as a part of that social connection, even better. For one idea, take a look at the concept of Walking Moia, social groups that walk together, recommended by The Blue Zones Project as a way to promote a healthy, active, and longer life.