Eine Studie mit mehr als 30.000 Erwachsenen in den USA, bei der Personen über 20 Jahre untersucht wurden, ergab, dass die Rate des mit dem Alter verbundenen kognitiven Verfalls bei Menschen, die offiziell ehrenamtlich ihre Dienste leisten oder auf informellerer Weise in der Familie oder außerhalb des Hauses regelmäßig helfen, um 15–20 % zurückging

In the latest evidence that meaningful social connections bolster health, a team from The University of Texas at Austin and University of Massachusetts Boston has found that regular time spent helping outside the home significantly slows cognitive decline in middle-age and older adults.

The new study of more than 30,000 adults in the U.S. looking at individuals over two decades found that the rate of cognitive decline associated with aging fell by 15%-20% for people who formally volunteer their services or who help in more informal ways with neighbors, family or friends outside the home on a regular basis. This cognitive benefit was consistently observed when individuals devoted about two to four hours per week to helping others. The results were reported in the latest edition of the journal Social Science & Medicine and were based on a study funded by the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. 

“Everyday acts of support — whether organized or personal — can have lasting cognitive impact,” said Sae Hwang Han, an assistant professor of human development and family sciences at UT who led the study. “What stood out to me was that the cognitive benefits of helping others weren’t just short-term boosts but cumulative over time with sustained engagement, and these benefits were evident for both formal volunteering and informal helping. And in addition to that, moderate engagement of just two to four hours was consistently linked to robust benefits.”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953625007968?via%3Dihub