Associations between starting and stopping volunteering and physical activity among older adults - longitudinal evidence from the German Ageing Survey

BACKGROUND: Physical activity (PA) contributes to healthy aging. Several studies have investigated factors influencing PA. However, population-based studies evaluating associations between volunteering and changes in PA are lacking. Our aim was to clarify whether starting and stopping to volunteer is associated with changes in physical activity in older adults.

METHOD: We used data from the German Ageing Survey (wave 5 and 6 in the years 2014 and 2017), which is a representative survey of community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults. We included individuals ≥ 65 years (analytical sample: n = 5,682). PA was investigated using questions from the international physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) and converted into metabolic equivalent of tasks (METs) per week. Changes in volunteering status in groups or organizations (yes/no) and their association with changes in PA were investigated in adjusted asymmetric fixed effects models stratified by sex.

RESULTS: We found an association, between starting to volunteer and increased physical activity in older adults in the total sample (ß = 1,078.93, p = 0.052). This change reached significance for men (ß = 1,751.54, p = 0.016), but not for women (ß = 187.25, p = 0.832) in the stratified analyses. In the total sample, there was no association between stopping volunteering and decreases in PA (ß = -285.61, p = 0.543). This also held true in the stratified analyses for men (ß = -320.76, p = 0.583) and women (ß = -158.96, p = 0.845).

CONCLUSION: Our study identified an association between beginning to volunteer and increased physical activity among older men. Thus, beginning to volunteer may assist older men in increasing their physical activity levels.