The effect of volunteer activity on wellness as measured by physical, mental and/or emotional benefits
Casiday, R., Kinsman, E., Fisher, C., & Bambra, C. (2008). Volunteering and health: What impact does it really have? Final report to Volunteering England. Report prepared for Volunteering England, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, London, England.
The authors are of the University Of Wales Lampeter Department of Voluntary Sector Studies, and Durham University’s Department of Geography. The study was a meta-analysis conducted for the National Council for Voluntary Organizations (NCVO), which focuses on national policy in England related to volunteerism. To support NCVO’s ongoing efforts to engage citizens in volunteerism, the researchers analyzed peer-reviewed journals across a variety of disciplines to draw out the tangible health benefits associated with volunteerism. The researchers’ work summarizes the various mental, physical, other benefits of volunteering, both for those who give their time and for those who are recipients.
The authors discuss volunteer training and other organizational-level parameters which can positively or negatively affect the quality of the volunteering experience. This meta-analysis has important applicability for federal, state or local governments who wish to influence public health via social rather than medicinal intervention. This study has excellent detail regarding the quality and methodology of studies assessed; discussion of a variety of social factors influencing both the input and output of volunteer activities; the health effect of activities on both the giver and the recipient; and contains worksheets, survey samples, and tables summarizing each source study used in the meta-analysis. This is an excellent resource for assessing volunteerism along the continuum of everyday health and wellness needs.
Infurna, F., Morris, O., & Grimm, K. (2016). Volunteering is associated with lower risk of cognitive impairment. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. (2016, October 3). doi: 10.1111/jgs.14398
Researchers from the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University used data from the Health and Retirement study collected from 1998 to 2012 with the intention of measuring cognitive impairment. The aim of the authors is to test the hypothesis that aging adults who start and continue volunteering activities will be at less risk of age-related cognitive issues, such as dementia. The results of the study suggest that maintaining a volunteering role over time is in fact associated with lower cognitive impairment. The authors suggest public health administrators should consider volunteering as a nonmedicinal intervention in mental health for the aging.
The authors believe it is the first study of its kind, specifically relating volunteerism and cognitive impairment. Limitations of this study as suggested by the authors include an inability to determine causality (e.g., if better mental faculties are in themselves predictors for volunteerism), and the lack of incorporation of other details such as nature of the volunteer work itself. While the results of the study are promising, additional work would be useful to assess the relevance of the findings to everyday applications, as cognitive decline is a challenging and complex health issue. On the other hand, family of the aging, and those adults looking to keep their faculties sharp as they age, will find the results of this study encouraging and inspiring.
Poulin, M. (2014). Volunteering predicts health among those who value others: two national studies. Health psychology: official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, (33)2. pp. 120-129. doi: 10.1037/a0031620
The author is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Buffalo. This work is an analysis of two previous studies (data collected in 2000 and 2002) with the intention of looking at how a volunteer’s attitude towards others and society affected the already-known beneficial nature altruistic activity. This study addresses limitations posed by previous works on the same topic, in that perhaps those who benefit most from volunteer activities are predisposed to benefit in some way. The parameter of cynicism was measured, and it was shown that volunteers who have a more optimistic outlook on life in general received the greatest benefits from their volunteer activities.
The author suggests further studies to test the connections of general life outlook to volunteering benefits, with the intention of better identifying potential volunteers that will receive the most benefit from their efforts. The author points out a limitation in his own study design, that the data methodology does not permit an analysis of causality between worldview and volunteering activities. Given the existing literature on the many benefits of volunteerism for the giver, further research on causality could show that volunteering in in itself mitigates cynicism in some. This work is useful for health practitioners who may need additional guidance in suggesting wellness activities for certain patients or clients.
Zemore, S., & Pagano, M. (2008). Kickbacks from helping others: health and recovery. Recent developments in alcoholism: an official publication of the American Medical Society on Alcoholism , the research Society on Alcoholism, and the National Council on Alcoholism (18). pp. 141-166. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maria_Pagano/publication/23712978_Kickbacks_from_Helping_Others_Health_and_Recovery/links/0046351533bc7b85d4000000.pdf
The research team is comprised of an alcohol research specialist and a psychiatrist at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The study consists of a review of available research on the effects of altruistic behavior within Alcoholics Anonymous and among the population at large. The authors find a strong link between the success of AA in encouraging sobriety and its emphasis on what is known as “service” within the organization. This conclusion, while compelling, is based on the researcher’s own study of AA as a historical entity, and not on clinical methodology. This information is still helpful when looking at the effectiveness or design of social and spiritual methods of conquering a health problem, which in this case is alcoholism.
The analysis also looks at the available research on youth and adolescents, young adults, and the aging and elderly, and summarizes the physical and mental benefits of engaging in altruistic behavior. The benefits are diverse and are physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral in nature. The authors indicate that the dearth of clinical research is a limitation on studying altruism and volunteering effects on health. Additionally, the formats of previous studies (e.g., self-reporting) are possibly unreliable. As mentioned in previous works, there is a question of whether those who benefit from volunteerism are already predisposed to see improvement for some reason. This is a good resource for healthcare practitioners who wish to guide their patients and clients towards nonmedical and nonmedicinal support for substance abuse issues.