Researchers confirmed how you spend your free time could have a direct effect on your overall health...and risk of death.
Want To Slow Aging? Stay Active in This One Area, Says New Study
Published on Jun. 03, 2025
Certain aspects of daily life have drastically shifted since the Covid-19 pandemic—including how (and how much) we socialize. A 2024 survey done by market research firm CivicScience found that 26% of American adults said a sense of loneliness had increased for them since 2020. Though Gen Z was most directly impacted, the survey found that 19% of adults 55 or older reported a more prevalent feeling of loneliness.
With aging comes changes to lifestyle and health, and researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and Harvard Medical set out to see if staying socially engaged—particularly through certain activities—might contribute to healthy aging.
Published in May’s Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, their study included a total of 2,268 participants who had completed both lifestyle and psychosocial questionnaires, as well as given blood samples.
After a four-year period, the results showed that older adults with higher social engagement had less frequent symptoms of depression, healthier behaviors, and even “a lower median biological age.”
Perhaps most notably, those in the higher social engagement category had a reduced risk of death, “possibly due to decreased biological aging and increased physical activity levels.”
Citing how 20% of the U.S. population will be 65 or older by 2030, the study’s findings come at a particularly good time—and provide insight into specific methods of social engagement that are the most impactful.
Three types of activities were found to be “particularly significant predictors” of reduced death risk:
• Charity work
• Engagement with grandchildren
• Attending sports or social clubs
Being a part of either community or social activities matters, as “these activities not only have the potential to directly improve health by reducing disease incidence but also contribute indirectly through a multifaceted network of psychological, biological, behavioral, and economic factors,” stated the study’s text.
Other activities—such as playing card games, participating in local community arts groups, or attending educational or training courses—showed “no significant effect.”
The results, concluded the research team, pointed to a suggestion “that promoting social activities, healthy aging practices, and physical exercise could be crucial for developing effective public health interventions to promote longevity in the geriatric population.”
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