Voting Is Good For Your Health

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

In addition to being a responsibility and right for people living in the United States, voting also brings health benefits, as a recently revealed study revealed.

The results of the research were presented by the academic publication Child Development after following the behavior of 9,471 adolescents and young adults (between the ages of 11 and 20) over the course of 15 years.

The information disclosed ensures that those who participated in the study, who claimed to vote and volunteer, had fewer symptoms of depression and better eating habits than those who did not.

"Civic engagement is a productive experience for young people," said Parissa Ballard, author of the research and professor at the Wake Forest School of Medicine, in Time magazine. "The results found in those who volunteer and vote were tremendously positive," added the expert.

Despite the good health benefits that activities of this type can bring, the study also adds that people who participate in activism (marches or protests), on the contrary, showed a greater tendency to engage in behaviors such as substance abuse.

Another interesting fact presented by the study is that those people who actively participate in these activities, showed a propensity to have a better job, education and salary, contrary to what was found in their counterparts who avoid getting involved in this type of civic activities.

For the author of the research, the data obtained after years of study is unequivocal evidence that better health can be promoted in young people while engaging in activities that benefit their communities.