Grandparents who help care for children live longer
WE know that eating right and exercising for 30 minutes each day, consistently, can help us to live longer, irrespective of age. We know we should avoid fried foods and sugary drinks, and eat more ground provisions and fruits and vegetables. We know we should avoid fat, salt and salt-preserved foods, and eat more lean meats, with a greater preference for fish or chicken (baked or broiled — not fried).
We should also seek to go walking for at least 10 minutes after every meal. These approaches have been shown to benefit our health and longevity.
However, what we may not know is that caregiving may also add length to our lives.
Caregiving is the providing of assistance to another person who may be ill, disabled, or needing help with their daily activities. Oftentimes, caregivers are needed for children and the elderly.
Grandparents as caregivers
Research published in the December edition of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior concluded that grandparents who helped out occasionally with childcare or who provided support to others in their community tend to live longer than seniors who do not care for other people.
The data came from the Berlin Aging study in Germany and was conducted by researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland. It involved more than 500 people over the age of 70 years. The research participants completed interviews and medical tests every two years for a period of two decades — between 1990 and 2009.
Since having full-time custody of grandchildren can produce negative effects on the health of seniors, the researchers did not include any grandparents who were the primary caregivers for their grandchildren. Instead, the researchers compared seniors who cared for grandchildren occasionally with seniors who provided support for non-family members such as friends, or neighbours and seniors who did not provide any care to other people.
After doing the statistical adjustments for the grandparents’ age and general state of health, the researchers found that the risk of dying over a 20-year period was actually one-third lower for those grandparents who cared for their grandchildren when compared with grandparents who did not provide any child care.
Further, over one-half of the grandparents who cared for grandchildren were still alive 10 years after the initial interview. The same was true for participants who did not have grandchildren, but supported their adult children in some way, such as helping with housework.
Some seniors die earlier
In contrast, about half of the participants who did not help others died within five years of the start of the study.
Also, caregiving was linked with longer life even when the recipient of the care was not a relative. Half of all childless seniors who provided support to friends and neighbours were alive seven years after the study began, whereas non-helpers lived for only four more years on average.
On the other hand, having no contact at all with grandchildren can negatively impact the health of grandparents, the researchers reported.
The lead author postulated that the latter effect could be linked to a mechanism deeply rooted in our evolutionary past when help with childcare was crucial for the survival of the human species.
Other research scientists proffered that caregiving may give caregivers a purpose in life because these caregivers may feel useful in the service of others and of the society.
In fact, caregiving may be thought of as an activity that keeps caregivers physically and mentally active, and previous research studies suggest that caregiving may improve cognitive functioning (the process of perception, memory, judgement, and reasoning), and mental and physical health.
Other beneficial activities
On the other hand, if grandparents have too many caring responsibilities, it can take away from other personally beneficial activities like working, being in social clubs, or volunteer work. Hence, adult children should always take into consideration their parents’ needs, willingness, and desires, and negotiate with them on the timing as well as the amount of child care.
Every individual should decide for himself or herself what a “moderate amount of help” means, and as long as the person does not feel stressed about the intensity of the help he or she provides, then that person may be doing something good for others as well as for himself or herself.
We should all be concerned, not only about improving our own health and longevity, but also that of our family and friends. Consequently, we should spread the knowledge that has been gained through research as we seek to make this world a better place now and in the future.
Derrick Aarons MD, PhD is a consultant bioethicist/family physician, a specialist in ethical issues in medicine, the life sciences and research, and is the ethicist at the Caribbean Public Health Agency – CARPHA. (The views expressed here are not written on behalf of CARPHA.)