There is a link between feeling needed and mortality. According to a study, carried out in Japan (Okamoto & Tanaka, 2004) among people aged 65 or older, those not given the feeling to be useful were twice as likely to die over a six-year-follow-up period. Results of a study carried out in Finland (Pitkala et al., 2004) among people aged 75 or older are similar. Those feeling needed were, in fact, less likely to die within the following ten years (and less likely to end up in institutionalised care over a five-year-follow-up period). Just to mention two studies...
- Gruenewald, T. L., Karlamanga, A. S., Greendale, G. A., Singer, B. H. & Seeman T. E. (2007) Feelings of Usefulness to Others, Disability, and Mortality in Older Adults: The MacArthur Study of Successful Aging., Journal of Gerontology, 62B, 1, 28-37.
- photograph by Leon Levinstein, Whitney Museum of American Art, copyright by artist or artist's estate, via
