{"title":"Heterogeneous Effects of Volunteering on Frailty in Later Life: A Panel Quantile Regression Approach.","authors":"Sae Hwang Han, Narae Park","doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbae033","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Decades of research indicate that volunteering is associated with better health for the volunteer beyond the selection effects based on health. However, little is known about potential heterogeneity in health outcomes associated with volunteering in the context of good or poor health. This study addresses this gap by focusing on the frailty index (FI) to investigate the volunteering-health nexus across the population frailty distribution ranging from fit to frail.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using nationally representative data from the Health and Retirement Study (person N = 34,986; 198,218 person-wave observations), we estimated unconditional quantile regression models with panel fixed effects to estimate changes in FI associated with changes in the share of volunteers in the population across the frailty distribution observed across the study period (1998-2020).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our findings demonstrated that the volunteering-FI association was heterogeneous across the frailty distribution. The association was the most potent at the higher end of the frailty distribution, suggesting that efforts to promote volunteering may yield greater benefits for older adults experiencing high levels of frailty.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>The current study findings provide unique and compelling evidence in support of earlier calls for considering volunteering as a public health intervention. The study findings are discussed in the context of population health outcomes and health disparities.</p>","PeriodicalId":56111,"journal":{"name":"Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10998351/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbae033","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objectives: Decades of research indicate that volunteering is associated with better health for the volunteer beyond the selection effects based on health. However, little is known about potential heterogeneity in health outcomes associated with volunteering in the context of good or poor health. This study addresses this gap by focusing on the frailty index (FI) to investigate the volunteering-health nexus across the population frailty distribution ranging from fit to frail.
Methods: Using nationally representative data from the Health and Retirement Study (person N = 34,986; 198,218 person-wave observations), we estimated unconditional quantile regression models with panel fixed effects to estimate changes in FI associated with changes in the share of volunteers in the population across the frailty distribution observed across the study period (1998-2020).
Results: Our findings demonstrated that the volunteering-FI association was heterogeneous across the frailty distribution. The association was the most potent at the higher end of the frailty distribution, suggesting that efforts to promote volunteering may yield greater benefits for older adults experiencing high levels of frailty.
Discussion: The current study findings provide unique and compelling evidence in support of earlier calls for considering volunteering as a public health intervention. The study findings are discussed in the context of population health outcomes and health disparities.
目的:数十年的研究表明,除了基于健康状况的选择效应之外,志愿服务还与志愿者的健康状况改善有关。然而,人们对志愿服务与健康状况好坏相关的健康结果的潜在异质性知之甚少。本研究通过关注虚弱指数(FI)来研究志愿服务与健康之间的关系,从而填补这一空白:利用健康与退休研究(Health and Retirement Study)中具有全国代表性的数据(人数=34,986;198,218 人-波观察值),我们估算了带有面板固定效应的无条件量级回归模型,以估算在整个研究期间(1998-2020 年)所观察到的虚弱分布中,与志愿者在人口中所占比例变化相关的 FI 变化:结果:我们的研究结果表明,志愿服务与 FI 的关系在整个虚弱分布中是不均匀的。这种关联在体弱分布的高端最为明显,这表明促进志愿服务的努力可能会给体弱程度较高的老年人带来更大的益处:目前的研究结果提供了独特而有力的证据,支持了之前将志愿服务作为公共卫生干预措施的呼吁。研究结果将在人口健康结果和健康差异的背景下进行讨论。
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences publishes articles on development in adulthood and old age that advance the psychological science of aging processes and outcomes. Articles have clear implications for theoretical or methodological innovation in the psychology of aging or contribute significantly to the empirical understanding of psychological processes and aging. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, attitudes, clinical applications, cognition, education, emotion, health, human factors, interpersonal relations, neuropsychology, perception, personality, physiological psychology, social psychology, and sensation.