social club may be just as important as
exercise in helping to prolong life after
retirement, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of
Queensland studied evidence from the
English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, and
found that if a person belonged to two
social groups before retirement and kept
this up over the following six years, their
risk of death was just 2%. However,
the risk rose to 5% if they gave up one
membership and 12% if they gave up
membership of both. The benefits were
similar to – or even slightly better than –
those conferred by regular exercise.
