In their late days, elderly have a lot of recess time. Enjoying their life and all the accomplishment that they have made such as all the fortune and wealth, happy family, a remarkable name, etc.
But sometimes, those factors make them isolated and exclusive. Is it good that way? Should we warn them or let just like that?
As social creature, we are meant to life together side by side, not only just with other human, but also all the creature in this realm.
Thus, old age cannot deprive the very fabric of our nature. To get along with others and do some interactions, it will keep our social life stay ‘healthy’ and stabilize our emotional state.
Depart from that, we will further discuss about the topic, thus, here are five mental and physical health benefits of having an active social interaction for seniors and retirees:
1. Avoiding mental distress.
When people do less interaction, some psychological degradation may appear within their self. It is happened since one is not-being-social enough.
We can see those diminish, as the instance, like loneliness, depression, and less motivation for physical activity, etc.
It is quite important for the seniors and retirees who have no steady activities already, to spend more time for interacting socially with people surround them.
By regularly doing it, their mental conditions can be kept in the optimal condition, retain the good mood, and tend to have a longer lifespan.
2. Less interaction, physical problem?
Not only that less interactions can lead to some mental problem, but the worst is, it also may lead to physical problem too.
People with less interaction tend to be solitaire and introvert, thus, it will be harm things if they are done by idling seniors and retirees.
Those mental tendencies make people more sluggish and detract physical movement.
Since many people believe that a vigorous mind lead to a strong physical state, therefore, social interactions are able to avoid physical problem.
From the newest study, people with more social interactions may control the hypertension and lower the blood pressure, reduce the risk of possibly cardiovascular failure, cancers, osteoporosis, also arthritis.
3. It will improve the brain performance!
Then, how if we combine those two point above into one? Thus, the answer is: Social interactions are good for the brain’s health.
Essentially, our brain is the organ (physical) which controls the main process of how we think and act (mental).
Therefore, it is quite important to keep this significance limb still intact, especially for the elders.
One of the latest study showed that, adults and aging people that more likely to interact socially have less cognitive decline, as much as 70%, compared with them which are seldom interacting.
Not only that, another research also revealed that elder women with high rate of social interactions and networks tend to have lesser risk in getting dementia and cognitive impairment.
So, don’t think the only cognitive benefits of playing video games everyday, but social interaction do the things too.
4. Accustom healthy lifestyle and behavior.
Stay in touch with other people will promote a healthy definitive bond, grow the intimacy upon specific person, and be more sympathetic with other condition. Actually, this thing’s are good for mental state.
A study showed that elders and seniors stand as grandparents and do some care upon their grandchildren, tend to be healthier and more active in their past days.
Within this ways, many participant said that their some unhealthy behaviors (like smoking or drinking) may stop. Indeed, social interactions accustom healthy lifestyle and behavior.
5. Let people assist them within the old days.
Actually, the seniors and retires are not mend to be alone within their old days.
It is a great thing for them to be around with the people which care, especially their beloved people, like wife, children, other family member and also friends as well.
Moreover, when people get old, it means that they need more assistance than they used to be.
The physical weaken, perceptive degeneration and psychomotor enervation are things naturally experienced by them.
It is quite often the retirees, particularly the older, find some difficulties in doing specific activities.
But more importantly, with all the body flaws, many obstacles seem quite dangerous for their sake. Departing from those cases, they surely need other people more around.
In order to facilitate the information above, here are some ways of social interactions for the elders and seniors:
- Find suitable activities communities for the elder, as an instance, bingo, or chess since there are many benefits of games for seniors .
- Spend some quality time with close accompany little tea party, do a garden barbecue in the park, etc.
- Do some social events such as neighborhood charity gig, local cultural engagement, and so on.
- Reunite with some colleague from the past through social media: Facebook for the example.
- Visiting a memorial/nostalgic places and interact with the new residents there.
- Do some physical exercise, thus, we also acknowledge the many benefits of exercise for emotional health
- Walk in the park with other oldies, there’s a lot of health benefits of walking 6 km a day, if you know.
- If some of you still made it, why don’t you try a little jog or run. You will see the benefits of running for cardiovascular health.
So, those are mental and physical health benefits of having an active social interaction for seniors and retirees, which can add some insight about the importance of social interaction within the old days.
Sources:
Crooks, V. C., Lubben, J., Petitti, D. B., Little, D., & Chiu, V. (2008). Social network, cognitive function, and dementia incidence among elderly women. American journal of public health, 98(7), 1221-1227.
James, B. D., Wilson, R. S., Barnes, L. L., & Bennett, D. A. (2011). Late-life social activity and cognitive decline in old age. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 17(6), 998-1005.
Shaya, F. T., Chirikov, V. V., Daniel Mullins, C., Shematek, J., Howard, D., Foster, C., & Saunders, E. (2013). Social networks help control hypertension. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension, 15(1), 34-40.