Take Our Aging Quiz
How much do you know about growing older? Is it true that your heredity will determine how long you live? Is it false that your vocabulary will grow as you age? Test yourself on the basic facts and the latest research on aging.
Click on each link below to see the answer to the True-False question.
A lack of social ties is a risk factor for poor health as you age.
True.
Elders who become isolated are more likely to have health problems; they’re also apt to die sooner than those who are in close contact with family and friends.
According to the “MacArthur Study of Successful Aging,” a 10-year investigation that studied thousands of older people, the more often elders saw friends and the more useful they felt, the better they functioned physically. Those who often felt useful were also less likely to die within the next seven years. Some of the study’s participants did volunteer work–one reason they felt useful–and Dr. John W. Rowe, who headed the MacArthur team, reported that the more hours elders invested as volunteers, the better they functioned, physically and mentally.
Rowe, John W. “The New Gerontology: Implications and Strategies for an Aging Society.” Presentation at the 2005 annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America.
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