There are unexpected “nutrients” in life—certain experiences and habits that give the mind and body essential support and make a marked improvement in how well we think, feel, and move as we age.
Social determinants of health are aspects of everyday living that impact our health. They span from intuitive components, such as economic status, to less apparent determinants, such as community.
In their 1999 book “Social Determinants of Health,” Michael Marmot and Richard Wilkinson provide scientific evidence in support of this added dimension of well-being. They found that poverty alone doesn’t explain discrepancies in health. “When people change social and cultural environments,” the authors write, “their disease risks change.”
What does this mean for everyday people trying to improve their own health and well-being? Access to health care, screenings, and checkups are only part of the story. A person’s social and cultural environment—their community—also impacts their physical and mental health. Here are five research-backed ways to tap into community-based health benefits.
Nurture Ties With Family and Friends
Social ties are at the heart of every community and can help prevent age-associated cognitive decline, but which social ties are most important? Data collected as part of the longitudinal Survey of Ageing, Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) initiative have been helpful in exploring this question. The data measured cognitive scores using immediate recall, delayed recall, and fluency while also measuring five types of social connection—spouse, children, other relatives, friends, and volunteering—based on the participants’ lists of confidants (maximum of seven).In a 2021 study, researchers modeled the SHARE data to examine five social structure types:
- Friend-enhanced: Listed friends as social network. May or may not cite relatives. Less likely to cite a spouse. Typically having zero to 2 children. More likely to volunteer.
- Close-family: Listed family as social network. Married with at least one child. Less likely to cite friends or other relatives. Less likely to volunteer.
- Family-poor: Listed relatives as social network. Less likely to have a spouse or children. Less likely to cite friends.
- Multi-tie: Listed relatives, family, and friends. Likely to cite a spouse, have many children, and volunteer.
- Family-rich: Listed relatives and family. Likely to cite a spouse and have 1 to 2 children. Less likely to cite friends or volunteer.
There’s more than one way to access the cognition-based benefits of community, which is good news for older adults whose familial ties may already be cemented. While a varied social network including family and friends is the gold standard, a friend-enhanced social network can be built at any time and offers health benefits.
Volunteer
The SHARE study found that volunteering was an attribute in two of three community groups most likely to improve cognitive decline. Other studies have looked at volunteering on its own and found good reason to head to your local soup kitchen or community center.Beyond the cognition-based benefits of an enriched social network, volunteering is associated with a reduction in hypertension. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, can damage artery walls leading to stroke or heart disease, two major causes of morbidity.
One study looked at Americans aged 50 and older and took baseline blood pressure readings from those who had volunteered more than 200 hours in the previous year and those who hadn’t. The study found that the people who had volunteered were significantly less likely to develop hypertension over the next four years.
Explore Alternative Living Arrangements
Retirement homes have long been a potential living arrangement for older adults, while group homes have been popular among young adults. Multigenerational living, however, is currently making a resurgence through intentional living arrangements including cohousing and familial multigenerational housing. Multigenerational communities can help delay age-associated cognitive decline by increasing a person’s access to a diverse and multi-tiered social network.Further, cohousing represents a unique model that allows Americans to live in a multigenerational, intentional community without giving up the independence of single-family living. The mental health benefits of these communities were highlighted during the COVID-19 period of isolation, with cohousing residents reporting lower levels of anxiety, depression, and self-destructive coping strategies than their peers outside of intentional communities. Several studies also have reported an association with improved physical health, though more research needs to be done to corroborate these findings.
It’s unclear whether familial multigenerational housing has a positive impact on elder health when compared to living with a partner. Seniors living alone, however, tend to subjectively experience poorer health and exhibit poorer health outcomes.
Children growing up in multigenerational housing exhibit improved cognitive functioning, possibly due to the strengthening bonds generated between young children and their elders. Additionally, financial benefits and the development of a village atmosphere can decrease the burden of child-rearing in isolation for young families.
Join a Social Group
An excellent way to build a community of friends and level up into either the multi-tie or friend-enhanced social categories is to join a social group. This is especially important for retired people, as an important source of social cohesion and cognitive complexity can be lost when people leave their work.A study of English retirees found that participants who remained actively engaged in two social groups after retirement experienced a 2 percent risk of death in the first six years of retirement. For participants who began retirement with two social groups but maintained neither, the rate of mortality shot up to 12 percent. The relationship was linear: For every group lost in the first year of retirement, a participant was likely to experience a 10 percent lower quality of life at the follow-up six years later.
The importance of social groups extends beyond retiree health. Stroke patients’ resiliency has been linked to the number of social groups they had before having a stroke, while people suffering from a brain injury are less likely to experience post-traumatic symptoms if they join a social group after their injury. Moreover, college students who belong to multiple social groups exhibit better mental health outcomes and higher levels of resiliency.
