Everyone wants to know the secret toย healthy aging.
Exercise.
Eat your vegetables.
Get enough sleep.
Don't smoke.
Try not to spend your retirement arguing with strangers in Facebook comments.
All good advice.
But research suggests there may be another surprisingly simple piece of the healthy-aging puzzle:
Have hobbies.
Better yet?
Have more than one.
A longitudinal study of older adults found that people who regularly participated in several different leisure activities were more likely to maintain what researchers call โsuccessful agingโ over four years.
And we're not talking about expensive biohacking retreats or $400 longevity supplements.
The activities included things like:
Reading. Gardening. Playing cards. Watching TV or listening to the radio. Caring for animals. Socializing.
Turns out staying engaged with life might actually be part of staying healthier while you live it.
Let's dig in.
What Does โSuccessful Agingโ Actually Mean?
First, scientists aren't handing out trophies for aging.
โSuccessful agingโ is a research concept used to describe maintaining health and function as you get older.
And that's an important distinction.
Living longer is one thing.
Living longer while maintaining your ability to think clearly, move independently, and enjoy your life?
That's the real goal.
In this particular study, researchers evaluated successful aging using five areas:
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Self-reported health
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Psychological health
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Cognitive function
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Freedom from disability
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Physical ability
In other words, successful aging wasn't simply:
Still alive? Check.
It was closer to:
Are you healthy, functioning, thinking clearly, and physically capable of doing everyday things?
That's a much more interesting definition of longevity.
The Study: What Researchers Actually Looked At
Researchers analyzed data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, a large population-based study conducted across much of China.
They started with older adults who met the study's definition of successful aging and followed them for approximately four years.
The final analysis included 1,828 adults age 60 and older.
Researchers wanted to know whether the participants' leisure activities predicted their ability to maintain successful aging over time.
And importantly, they looked at two things:
How often people participated.
And:
How many different activities they participated in.
Because apparently your hobbies may benefit from diversification too.
Your retirement portfolio isn't the only thing that likes variety.
What Counts as a Leisure Activity?
This is where the study gets refreshingly realistic.
Researchers weren't asking participants whether they completed triathlons or practiced advanced calculus before breakfast.
They looked at six everyday activities:
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Reading books or newspapers
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Gardening
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Playing mahjong or cards
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Listening to the radio or watching TV
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Raising pets or other animals
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Participating in social activities
That's it.
Nothing particularly exotic.
No cryotherapy.
No hyperbaric chambers.
No 5 a.m. cold plunge while a longevity influencer explains mitochondrial biogenesis.
Just normal things people enjoy doing.
And several of them were associated with maintaining healthy aging.
The Big Finding: Staying Engaged Was Associated With Aging Better
After accounting for factors including age, sex, education, marital status, income, smoking, exercise, and major chronic diseases, researchers found that frequently participating in several leisure activities was associated with a greater likelihood of maintaining successful aging.
Compared with people who never participated in each activity, frequent participation was associated with higher adjusted odds of maintaining successful aging for:
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Reading books or newspapers
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Gardening
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Playing mahjong or cards
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Listening to the radio or watching TV
The associations weren't statistically significant after adjustment for every activity studied.
Raising pets and participating in social activities, for example, were not significantly associated with maintaining successful aging in the fully adjusted analysis.
That's an important reminder:
This wasn't a study where every hobby magically worked.
Science remains annoyingly complicated.
Here's the Really Interesting Part: Variety Mattered
Researchers didn't only look at individual activities.
They also counted how many different leisure activities people regularly participated in.
And that's where things got particularly interesting.
Compared with older adults who participated in zero leisure activities, those participating in three different activities had about 78% higher adjusted odds of maintaining successful aging.
Those participating in four to six activities had about 65% higher adjusted odds.
That doesn't mean exactly three hobbies is the secret longevity formula.
Please don't start panic-buying gardening supplies because you're currently sitting at two.
The broader takeaway is more useful:
Older adults who regularly participated in a greater variety of leisure activities were more likely to maintain healthy aging over time.
Variety may matter.
Why Could Hobbies Support Healthy Aging?
This study can't tell us exactly why leisure activities were associated with successful aging.
But think about what different hobbies ask your body and brain to do.
Reading Challenges Your Brain
Reading requires attention, language processing, memory, and comprehension.
Your brain isn't exactly sitting on the couch during a good book.
It's working.
Previous research has linked participation in cognitive activities with better cognitive outcomes later in life.
That doesn't mean reading prevents dementia.
But continuing to challenge your brain may be one piece of maintaining cognitive function as you age.
Gardening Is Sneakily Physical
Gardening doesn't look like a workout.
Until you've spent three hours pulling weeds.
Then your hamstrings would like a word.
Gardening can involve:
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Walking
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Squatting
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Bending
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Lifting
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Carrying
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Grip strength
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Coordination
Plus, you're outside, working toward a goal, and potentially interacting with other people.
It's basically functional movement disguised as an argument with tomatoes.
Games Keep Your Brain Working
Playing cards or games like mahjong requires combinations of:
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Memory
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Strategy
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Attention
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Decision-making
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Pattern recognition
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Social interaction
Again, that doesn't make game night a dementia treatment.
But cognitively demanding leisure activities may help keep the brain engaged.
And unlike a cognitive training app reminding you that your subscription renews tomorrow, people might actually enjoy doing them.
Even Passive Activities May Not Be Completely Passive
One of the more surprising findings was that frequent radio listening or television watching was associated with maintaining successful aging.
Before you interpret this as permission for a 14-hour Netflix marathon, context matters.
Watching television or listening to the radio can provide:
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Information
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Entertainment
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Cognitive stimulation
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Connection with current events
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Structure and routine
The study didn't measure what people watched, how long they watched it, or whether excessive sedentary behavior changes the equation.
So the takeaway isn't:
TV = longevity.
It's that leisure and mental engagement can take many forms.
The Bigger Idea: Healthy Aging Isn't Just About Exercise
When we talk about how to age well, the conversation tends to revolve around physical health.
Exercise.
Nutrition.
Blood pressure.
Cholesterol.
All incredibly important.
But humans aren't just metabolic machines.
We're cognitive and social creatures too.
Healthy aging involves maintaining:
Your body.
Your brain.
Your independence.
Your engagement with life.
Different leisure activities may stimulate different pieces of that system.
Gardening challenges your body.
Reading challenges your mind.
Games challenge cognition.
Social activities connect you with other people.
The advantage of having multiple hobbies may be that you're exercising several dimensions of health at the same time.
Think of it as cross-training for aging.
Three Hobbies Isn't a Magic Number
This part matters.
The study found that participants engaged in three or more leisure activities had greater odds of maintaining successful aging.
But that does not prove:
Three hobbies = successful aging.
This was an observational study.
Researchers found an association.
They didn't randomly assign one group of older adults three hobbies and another group zero hobbies and then watch what happened.
It's possible that people who are healthier in the first place are simply more capable of participating in more activities.
Researchers adjusted for numerous health and lifestyle differences, but observational studies can't eliminate every possible explanation.
So don't think of hobbies as medicine.
Think of them as one potentially important piece of an overall healthy lifestyle.
Another Important Limitation: Who Was Studied?
The participants were older adults living in China.
That's important because leisure activities, lifestyles, social structures, and cultural norms differ between countries.
Mahjong, for example, was one of the activities specifically measured.
A similar study in the United States might include very different hobbies.
The broader principleโremaining physically, mentally, and socially engagedโmay be relevant elsewhere, but we shouldn't assume the exact findings automatically apply to every population.
There was also substantial loss to follow-up, and leisure activities were self-reported.
Good study?
Yes.
Final word on hobbies and longevity?
Definitely not.
What Are the Best Hobbies for Healthy Aging?
We don't have a scientifically ranked leaderboard.
Sorry.
There isn't currently a:
Top 10 Hobbies That Add 7.3 Years to Your Life
But if you're thinking practically, activities that challenge different aspects of health make sense.
For Your Brain
Try activities that require learning, attention, or problem-solving:
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Reading
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Puzzles
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Card games
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Board games
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Learning a language
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Playing an instrument
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Taking classes
For Your Body
Choose activities that keep you moving:
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Gardening
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Walking
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Dancing
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Swimming
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Strength training
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Recreational sports
For Social Connection
Find activities involving other humans:
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Clubs
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Volunteer work
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Religious or community groups
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Group exercise
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Game nights
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Classes
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Regular gatherings with friends or family
And some hobbies hit multiple categories at once.
Dancing?
Physical + cognitive + social.
Gardening club?
Physical + social + possibly cognitive.
Pickleball?
Physical + social + learning how seriously your neighbor takes recreational sports.
The goal isn't checking boxes.
It's building a life that keeps you engaged.
The Longevity Lesson May Be Surprisingly Simple
There's a tendency to make healthy aging and longevity incredibly complicated.
Track 47 biomarkers.
Buy the wearable.
Optimize your supplements.
Measure your sleep score.
Calculate your biological age.
And sure, some of that information can be useful.
But sometimes the boring advice keeps winning:
Move your body.
Use your brain.
Spend time with people.
Do things you enjoy.
And keep doing them as you get older.
That's something this research reinforces.
Aging well may not simply be about avoiding disease.
It may also be about continuing to participate in life.
The Bottom Line
Want to age well?
Don't retire from having interests.
In this four-year study of older Chinese adults, people who frequently participated in several leisure activities were more likely to maintain a combination of good health, cognitive function, physical ability, psychological health, and independence.
And people participating in multiple activitiesโparticularly three or moreโshowed greater odds of maintaining successful aging compared with those participating in none.
That doesn't prove hobbies make you live longer or prevent age-related disease.
But it does reinforce an important idea:
Healthy aging isn't just about adding years to your life.
It's about maintaining enough health, strength, cognition, and independence to keep participating in those years.
So read the book.
Plant the garden.
Play cards.
Learn something new.
Call your friends.
Find something you genuinely enjoy doing.
Then find another.
Your hobbies might be doing more than filling your time.
They might be helping you make better use of it.
References:
Shen X, Wang J, Chen J, Zhang H, Shen S, Zhao X. Relationship between participation in leisure activities and the maintenance of successful aging in older Chinese adults: a 4-year longitudinal study. BMC Geriatr. 2024 Dec 2;24(1):989. doi: 10.1186/s12877-024-05574-1. PMID: 39623303; PMCID: PMC11610103.