Feelings of usefulness to others, disability, and mortality in older adults: The Macarthur study of successful aging

We examined feelings of usefulness to others as a predictor of disability and mortality risk in a sample of older adults (aged 70–79 years) from the MacArthur Study of Successful Aging. We examined participants ’ perceptions of their usefulness to friends and family, measured at a baseline interview, as a predictor of subsequent increases in self-reported mobility disability, the onset of difficulty in performing activities of daily living, or mortality occurrence over a 7-year follow-up period. Compared with older adults who frequently felt useful to others, those who never or rarely felt useful were more likely to experience an increase in disability or to die over the 7-year period, even when we accounted for a number of demographic, health status, behavioral, and psychosocial factors. This suggests that feelings of usefulness may shape health trajectories in older adults. T HE period of life after a person reaches the age of 65 hasoften been referred to as the ‘‘third age,’ ’ a time largely characterized by disengagement from paid, productive roles (e.g., retirement from work); the lack of significant caretaking demands for younger generations; and the lack of other positive roles in productive or social domains (Cornman, 1997). In general, engagement in social and productive activities, especially in the domains of paid work and child care, decline