Few studies have been done on the‘impact of generosity on well-being. The last of its kind came from Canadian researchers. In the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the authors then assured that adolescents who render service to others for free (in this precise case it was a question of homework help), have better cardiovascular health with an index of body mass and cholesterol levels much better than others.
This time the information comes from colleagues at the University of Exeter Medical School in the United Kingdom. Suzanne Richards’ team analyzed forty studies carried out not from testimonies but from 9 experimental trials and 16 cohort studies. The conclusions of their compilation, published in the journal BMC Public Health, coincide with those of Canadians: volunteering is good for your health. It would decrease by 20% the risk of mortality among volunteers compared to non-volunteers. The risk of depression would also be reduced while mental well-being and level of satisfaction would be enhanced.
The researchers remain cautious and say they have yet to find the source of these apparent benefits of volunteering: “Our analysis shows that volunteering is associated with improvements in mental health, but more work is needed to determine whether volunteering in is the cause, concludes Dr. Richards. We don’t really know if the biological and cultural factors generally associated with better health, intervene upstream of the decision to volunteer ”. To be sure, the researcher encourages as many people as possible to volunteer.
In Europe, the volunteer rate is estimated at 22% of the population. In 2011, France had 16 million volunteers, according to a BVA survey.
