Productive Activities and Development of Frailty in Older Adults

OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to examine whether engagement in productive activities, including volunteering, paid work, and childcare, protects older adults against the development of geriatric frailty. METHODS: Data from the first (1988) and second (1991) waves of the MacArthur Study of Successful Aging, a prospective cohort study of high-functioning older adults aged 70-79 years (n = 1,072), was used to examine the hypothesis that engagement in productive activities is associated with lower levels of frailty 3 years later. RESULTS: Engagement in productive activities at baseline was associated with a lower cumulative odds of frailty 3 years later in unadjusted models (odds ratio [OR] = 0.74, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.58-0.96) but not after adjusting for age, disability, and cognitive function (adjusted OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.60-1.01). Examination of productive activity domains showed that volunteering (but neither paid work nor childcare) was associated with a lower cumulative odds of frailty after adjusting for age, disability, and cognitive function. This relationship diminished and was no longer statistically significant after adjusting for personal mastery and religious service attendance. DISCUSSION: Though high-functioning older adults who participate in productive activities are less likely to become frail, after adjusting for age, disability, and cognitive function, only volunteering is associated with a lower cumulative odds of frailty.