Participating in elections might just be your ticket to both civic responsibility and a longer life. While volunteering and other altruistic activities have long been linked to health benefits, researchers have now turned their attention to the act of voting itself to determine if it too offers protective health effects.
A compelling study published in the May edition of the Journals of Gerontology reveals that older adults who engage in voting during political elections may experience a reduced risk of mortality, potentially extending their lifespan by up to 15 years.
The study zeroed in on the 2008 presidential election, meticulously examining health data to distinguish between individuals who voted and those who abstained. The researchers then tracked these individuals over five, ten, and fifteen years to evaluate their mortality risks.
Remarkably, older voters in 2008 exhibited a significantly reduced risk of dying early, with a 45% lower mortality rate after just five years. The study’s most striking finding was that individuals in poorer health at the time of voting were still reaping the benefits a decade and a half later.
Lead author Femida Handy, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice, emphasized that these findings stood independently of factors like income, education, civic involvement, or political affiliation. This suggests that the act of voting itself may hold unique and powerful health benefits.
Femida Handy, lead author and professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, said the results weren’t explained by a participant’s wallet size, education, civic engagement or political party.
Even when their candidate loses, voters still have lower odds of dying in the subsequent years.
The benefits of voting didn’t appear to be limited to in-person engagement, either.
“We were surprised to find that people who voted either in person or remotely experienced these benefits,” Handy said.
“This suggests that voting itself is more important than the method of voting or even who they voted for. The potential long-lasting benefits of voting as individuals age make this information crucial for promoting voter turnout, in line with the American Medical Association recommendations.”
Past studies on voting behavior found that a person’s health status often indicates if they vote early or later. This study aimed to understand the flip side of that coin, to see if voting behavior could actually predict older Americans’ premature mortality risk.
There are other less direct ways that voting can impact human health, too.
In 2024, the American Heart Association (AHA) — which cheekily notes that “the act of voting is at the heart of a healthy democracy” — published an article about the role of voting in health outcomes and health’s impact on who votes and when.
“Experts on this back-and-forth say the connections are a weave of cultural, political and other factors that studies are just starting to unravel,” the author wrote.
Ultimately, they argue, voting access shouldn’t just be a priority for voting rights advocates — it should be a priority shared by health care professionals, too.
Researchers have explained this health-voting “loop” before: Individual health can impact a person’s baseline ability to vote. Voting directly influences public policy. And public policy has health consequences, both positive and negative.
The AHA noted that “voting affects things such as access to parks, construction of safe sidewalks and other public policies that affect health.”
When white women won the right to vote in 1920, for example, elected officials were suddenly accountable to their public health concerns. As a result, the number of child deaths tumbled by up to 15%, per a 2008 report in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.
In general, staying engaged into old age has numerous proven health benefits. Hobbies like gardening, crafting and cooking can slow cognitive decline. And maintaining social connections and community bonds — through volunteering, babysitting and, yes, voting — can be important for heart health.
Not to mention you get a fun little sticker. Win-win-win.
