Community involvement may be good for your health
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People who are active in their communities are more likely to be up on the latest health advice—suggesting that contact with diverse groups of people may do your health some good, researchers say.
In a study of nearly 3,000 adults, investigators found that those who were members of one or more community groups were generally better at recalling heart-health advice, including diet and lifestyle recommendations.
The finding was not explained by higher education levels among the civic-minded study participants, nor was their health wisdom a product of older age.
Instead, community involvement itself seemed to boost health knowledge, the study authors report in the American Journal of Public Health.
The findings suggest that civic engagement is good not only for your community, but for your health as well, according to Dr. Kasisomayajula Viswanath of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard University in Boston.
In some cases, community groups may specifically give health information to their members, he told Reuters Health. But simply talking with a diverse range of people, beyond family and close friends, can expose group members to more health information, Viswanath said.
He and his colleagues based their findings on data from 2,968 adults who took part in a heart-health study in the early 1980s. Participants reported whether they belonged to any community group—from fraternal organizations and professional associations to church and volunteer groups. They were also asked to recall any messages about heart attack and stroke that they’d read, seen or heard in the past few months.
On average, the researchers found, the more groups a person belonged to, the more health messages he or she remembered.
Joining a community group or two may open people up to new avenues of health information, according to Viswanath and his colleagues. But the findings also suggest that public health experts should see community groups as “important channels” for getting health messages across, Viswanath said.
In particular, he pointed out, many “medically underserved” Americans lack not only access to healthcare, but also information on how to protect their health. The current findings, Viswanath said, “point to a way to reach these groups.”
SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, August 2006.
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