Complementary Spiritist Therapy: Systematic Review of Scientific Evidence

Table 4

Hypothesis 4: Volunteering is associated with better health outcomes.

Study	Sample	Cohort followup	Predictor	Outcome	Results	Newcastle-Otawa grade
Pillemer et al. [72]	2630 noninstitutionalized adult population	20 years	Volunteering (environmental versus other)	Physical activity, self-reported health, and depressive symptoms	Midlife environmental volunteering was significantly associated with physical activity, self-reported health, and less depressive symptoms	7
Kim and Pai [78]	2562 adults 25 years or older	8 years	Volunteering (yes/no) and frequency of volunteering	Depression	Overall, volunteering did not predict trajectories of depression; however, it affects the decline of depression for individuals above age 65	7
Krause [73]	681 older adults	6 years	Volunteering and providing tangible goods and services	Self-reported health	provision of tangible goods and services (food, clothing, shelter) to people in need were associated with better health but only for study participants who were more deeply committed to their faith	7
Ayalon [71]	5055 Israelis aged 60 years and older	7 years	Volunteering	Mortality	Those who volunteered for 10 to 14 years had a reduced mortality risk relative to nonvolunteers. In addition, those who volunteered privately, not as part of an official organization, also had a reduced mortality risk compared to nonvolunteers	9
Piliavin and Siegl [74]	4000 women and men who graduated from Wisconsin high schools	47 years	Volunteering	Psychological well-being and self-reported health	Both consistency of volunteering over time and diversity of participation are significantly related to well-being and self-reported health	8
Harris and Thoresen [69]	7527 American community-dwelling older people	96 months	Volunteering	Mortality	Frequent volunteers had significantly reduced mortality compared to nonvolunteers	8
Morrow-Howell et al. [75]	3617 adults	8 years	Volunteering	Self-rated health, functional dependency, and depression	Older adults who volunteer and who engage in more hours of volunteering report higher levels of well-being (including less depression, less functional disability, and better health)	8
Musick and Wilson [77]	2348 non-institutionalized persons aged 25 and older	5 years	Volunteering work	Depression	No association between volunteering and depression in the younger subsample; only for the 65+ age group did volunteering have a negative effect on depression, while prolonged exposure to volunteering benefits both populations	8
Van Willigen [76]	2867 adults aged 25 years or older	3 years	Volunteering	Perceived health and life satisfaction	The volunteer role is positively associated with life satisfaction and with perceived health	8
Musick et al. [70]	2348 noninstitutionalized Persons aged 25 and older	8 years	Volunteering	Mortality	Volunteering has a protective effect on mortality among those who volunteered for one organization or for forty hours or less over the past year	8