Volunteering Linked to Lower Diabetes Risk in Black Adolescents From Low-Income Households

Volunteering may offer more than community benefits—it could also improve the health of Black adolescents from lower-income families.¹ Adolescents who volunteered, particularly more frequently, had lower metabolic syndrome scores and were less likely to develop diabetes as adults, a recent study finds. Moreover, researchers identified purpose in life as a key mediator, suggesting that altruistic activities may promote both psychological and physical health among marginalized youth.

This cohort study is published in JAMA Network Open.

“In this cohort study of 2 independent samples of Black adolescents from lower-income households, a positive component of [social determinants of health]—volunteering—was associated with lower adolescent metabolic syndrome and lower odds of adult diabetes,” wrote the researchers of the study. “Mediation analyses found that the association with volunteering operated via helping adolescents experience greater purpose in life.”

Purpose in life refers to a sense of meaning, direction, and intentionality that guides one’s actions and goals.² By fostering psychological resilience, motivation, and well-being, purpose in life may help buffer stress and encourage health-promoting behaviors, highlighting its potential as a modifiable factor in interventions aimed at reducing health disparities and promoting long-term cardiometabolic health.

The study analyzed data from 2 separate studies of Black adolescents from lower-income households.¹ The first study was a cross-sectional analysis of 400 adolescents aged 14 to 19 years (2018–2022), examining volunteering as a binary variable (yes/no) and by frequency, with outcomes measured as metabolic syndrome components and composite z-scores.

The second study was a 14-year longitudinal study of 979 adolescents aged 11 to 20 years (1994-2008), assessing volunteering between ages 12 and 18 and its association with diabetes diagnosis at age 29. Analyses evaluated associations between volunteering and cardiometabolic outcomes, and mediation analyses assessed whether purpose in life, physical activity, or depressive symptoms explained observed relationships.

In the first study, higher frequency of volunteering was associated with lower metabolic syndrome scores among Black adolescents, with each unit increase in volunteering frequency linked to a 0.06-point reduction in the composite metabolic syndrome z score (b = −0.06; SE, 0.03; P = .03). A greater sense of purpose in life explained this relationship, while physical activity and depressive symptoms did not.

In the second study, adolescents who volunteered between ages 12 and 18 had nearly half the odds of developing diabetes by age 29 compared with non-volunteers (OR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.24-0.94; P = .03).

However, the researchers acknowledged some limitations. The first study’s cross-sectional design prevented conclusions about causality, while the second lacked measures of purpose in life to replicate mediation findings and had infrequent, retrospective assessments of volunteering, diabetes diagnoses, and covariates. Additional limitations included limited information on volunteering type or duration, potential unmeasured confounders, and selection biases related to who participated. Therefore, the researchers noted that future research should explore volunteering within broader social and structural contexts, and experimental intervention studies are needed to determine causal effects on cardiometabolic health.

Despite these limitations, the researchers believe these findings suggest that volunteering in adolescence may confer measurable long-term cardiometabolic benefits.

“If so, the notion that volunteering could be beneficial not only for recipients of volunteering efforts, but also for volunteers themselves, suggests the possibility of creating a 2-way street of benefits through a single activity that could promote health across groups while also strengthening the social fabric across communities,” wrote the researchers.

References

1. Chen E, Germer SO, Moon H, et al. Volunteering and metabolic syndrome and diabetes in Black adolescents from low-income families.  JAMA Netw Open. 2026;9(1):e2553419. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.53419

2. Zábó V, Lehoczki A, Fekete M, et al. The role of purpose in life in healthy aging: implications for the Semmelweis Study and the Semmelweis-EUniWell Workplace Health Promotion Model Program. Geroscience. 2025;47(3):2817-2833. doi:10.1007/s11357-025-01625-6