Study says seniors who work or volunteer are healthier, and Sonoma County experts agree

The “Pasta King,” Art Ibleto, knows what’s kept him alive for nearly 89 years, and he divulges the secret as if it were a recipe for a delicious polenta dish.

“We are a machine - we are the most sophisticated machine on the face of the earth,” Ibleto said. “You got to work. Old cars don’t work if you don’t use them.”

Ibleto, whose local pasta empire includes packaged food, a catering business, a restaurant and a small winery and vineyard, said he’s been working hard all his life and “has no time to get old.”

He said he’d rather work than spend his days doing more typical retirement activities like hunting or fishing.

“I work and - believe it or not - I make money working,” he said.

But does Ibleto work because he is healthy, or is he healthy because he works?

It’s a question that is becoming increasingly relevant in Sonoma County, where 82,536 residents - 16 percent of the population- were 65 or older in 2014. That’s an increase of 38 percent from 2007, when 59,860 county residents were in that age group.

Some answers may be found in a new study by University of Miami researchers, who found that older Americans who work are generally healthier than those who are unemployed or retired.

The study’s strongest finding is that working seniors reported better mental health than those who were retired or unemployed, said Alberto Caban-Martinez, assistant professor of public health sciences at the University of Miami.

The study echoes previous research that suggests older Americans who work - or those who retire and then return to the workforce - tend to be physically healthier than those who remain retired or are unemployed, Caban-Martinez said.

The study did not conclude that working will actually make you physically healthier, but the data does shows that seniors who work reported “higher mental health scores” than those who were retired or unemployed, he noted.

“There’s a simple protective effect of remaining engaged in the workplace,” Caban-Martinez said. “We think there’s a lot of social benefit for an individual to participate in a work setting.”

Local experts in senior health and social issues say they are not surprised by the study’s findings. Seniors, their social workers and their doctors say staying connected and active is key to a healthy lifestyle.

Kaiser Permanente physician Margaret Marquez, whose specialties include geriatric medicine and hospice and palliative medicine, said older residents are less likely to be sedentary and isolated if they continue to work.

“It’s the old adage, ‘Use it or lose it,’ ” she said. “That’s true of the mind and of the body.”

Marquez said the older a person gets, the faster her or she loses muscle mass - and for older people, it’s harder to regain it once it’s lost. It’s much easier to maintain the muscle, even with something as simple as 30 minutes of daily moderate activity.

“It doesn’t have to be overly strenuous, especially as we get into our senior years,” she said, adding that exercises such as a brisk walk, a bike ride or swimming are ideal for older residents.

Caban-Martinez said the study by no means advocates a “workaholic” lifestyle, but instead suggests that being part of a workplace has a positive effect on older Americans’ mental health. That applies to full-time, part-time or even volunteer work.

Rohnert Park resident Carole Bratton came to that conclusion only after her life “hit bottom physically and emotionally.” Around the time she turned 70 five years ago, Bratton suffered a series of losses, including the deaths of her mother, her daughter’s fiancé, a close friend and her partner.

Bratton said she was desperate when she went to the local nonprofit Council on Aging for help. She became a COA client before volunteering for the agency’s senior peer support program. In time, COA hired her as the program’s administrative assistant.

“It saved my life. It gave me a purpose. It gave me something to look forward to, a reason to get up, and my whole life changed,” said Bratton, who is no stranger to work.

When she was younger, she worked as a homemaker, sold office equipment and outdoor and radio advertising. At the age of 51, she attended Empire College, worked as the college’s high school program director and then later became an instructor at Santa Rosa High School.

Life at 75 is no less busy, Bratton said.

“I’m no longer thinking about what’s coming ahead. I’m too busy living in the moment,” she said.

The University of Miami study is based on data from a portion of the nationwide Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, or MEPS, a series of large-scale surveys of families and individuals, their medical providers and employers. Caban-Martinez said the study was “cross-sectional,” a snapshot in time that limits the ability to analyze the causes of its findings.

The study is published this month in a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It found that seniors in physically demanding occupations had the lowest risk of poor health outcomes; service workers had the lowest risk of suffering from conditions that limited their abilities; and blue-collar workers had the lowest risk of having multiple chronic conditions and limits to functioning.

Even those who no longer work find that staying active is key.

Hugh Wilder, a 68-year-old retiree who lives in Santa Rosa, takes to the swimming pool every day to keep his body in top form. Wilder, a former professor at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, is a competitive swimmer who moved to Sonoma County five years ago, partly because of the wealth of outdoor activities available to North Coast residents, including hiking, biking and swimming.

Wilder has been participating in the U.S. Masters Swimming competition for 25 years and holds world records in his current age group, 65 to 69. He also holds two world records from when he swam in the 60 to 64 age group.

His current world records are faster than the records he set in the younger age group, “so I’m getting faster,” he said. Wilder said he feels great and suffers no chronic health problems at all, though like others he feels the occasional aches and pains.

“Swimming is the perfect sport for older people because there is no stress on joints like there is with running or tennis, where you’re pounding the body,” he said. “With swimming, you’re just in the water; it’s not an impact sport.”

He added that swimming is ideal aerobic training and great for the heart.

Wilder’s local masters swimming team, which is run out of the Santa Rosa recreation and parks department, offers him a close-knit community of friends and teammates. That’s another key to what he views as a healthy retirement, he said.

“The people I see every day, great people and friends in and out of the pool - without them, life would be lonely,” Wilder said.

Marquez, the Kaiser physician, echoed the importance of community and fellowship for older residents. That camaraderie is often found in the workplace, but it also can be achieved through volunteer opportunities, she said.

“There’s working for pay and just working for the joy of giving back, which many people can do in retirement,” Marquez said. “The healthiest and happiest, they embrace community in family and beyond. They practice gratitude, they find the silver lining and they are thankful for the little things that bring them inner peace and joy.”

Stephanie Cabral, program manager for a federally funded state employment program for seniors called ExperienceWorks, said the work environment is particularly important for the current generation of seniors.

“It’s a generation where work defined people,” she said. “Work was their primary identifier. That’s not so much true of the younger generation.”

Cabral said that through work seniors get social interaction, meaning and purpose. Women are more likely to “stay connected” by maintaining their social network after retirement, but men are more likely to become isolated and die earlier, she said.

ExperienceWorks, which has been around since 1965 and is open to low-income adults 55 and older, helps participants learn skills needed to return to unsubsidized employment. The agency primarily places seniors in nonprofit organizations and government agencies to gain job experience.

“We pay minimum wage, and it supports the nonprofit and government agency to accomplish its mission,” Cabral said.

Federal funding for ExperienceWorks only allows the program to reach one percent of eligible seniors in Sonoma County, she noted.

Rohnert Park’s Bratton said she’s defying long-held conventions by learning new skills later in life.

”They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” she said. “But I am doing things on the computer I never knew I could do - spreadsheets, statistics, quarterly reports that have to be turned into the county. I’m loving it. I absolutely love what I’m doing. It’s a joy.”

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.