Leaving the House Every Day May Help Older Adults Live Longer

By Sondra Forsyth

In a Journal of the American Geriatrics Society study of community-dwelling individuals aged 70 to 90 years who were participating in the Jerusalem Longitudinal Study, leaving the house daily was linked with a lower risk of dying over an extended follow-up period, independent of social, functional, or medical factors. The findings were published in November 2017.

A release from the publisher explains that the study’s investigators noted that getting outside of one’s home provides numerous opportunities for engagement with the world outside, and may facilitate exposure to a variety of beneficial experiences.

The release quotes lead author Dr. Jeremy Jacobs, of the Hadassah Hebrew-University Medical Center, in Jerusalem, as saying, “What is interesting is that the improved survival associated with getting out of the house frequently was also observed among people with low levels of physical activity, and even those with impaired mobility. Resilient individuals remain engaged, irrespective of their physical limitations.”