The secret to a long life? Books and a trip to church

But it has been revealed there is nothing like curling up with a good book and church meeting to ensure a life of contentment.

The benefits of book clubs and church groups are equal to those of regular exercise, researchers have claimed after studying the lifestyles of those newly retired.

The more clubs a person belongs to in the first few years after they stop working, the lower their risk of death, they found. Reverend John Walker, former vicar of St Wilfrid’s in Calverley, now oversees regular activities for 120 retired people at St George’s Church, Leeds, including a monthly communion and lunch club called Table Talk to advice sessions on retirement, care and bereavement

“Speaking from personal experience it’s always important to have something to get up for,” said the Rev Walker, 69.

“If you’ve got something on a certain day of the week, you’ve got to jolly well get up. My wife is still teaching full time and she’s delighted that I have a schedule to my life.

“We have 120 people in our groups. Not all of them go to church but I think they would agree that it’s very important to go to regular meetings.

“I’m retired but I’m still very active in my service and lead the Table Talk session, and I took that over from a woman called Sylvie Appleyard who is 94, and she’s still very active now.

“She’s quite a remarkable person and she would put it down to service, I’m sure.”

The researchers found that people’s health and wellbeing can deteriorate after retirement.

In a bid to assess the impact of social groups on retirees, researchers examined almost 424 English adults over the age of 50 for six years after retirement. They were compared with the same number of people, matched for age, sex, and health status, but who were still working.

The study, published in the online journal BMJ Open, found that 6.6 per cent of the retiree sample died in the first six years after they finished work.

Retirees who had two group memberships before retirement had a two per cent risk of death in the first six years of retirement if they maintained membership in two groups, a five per cent risk if they lost one group and a 12 per cent risk if they lost both groups, the researchers found. No such patterns were seen for those still in formal employment.

Researchers also assessed whether changes in physical activity levels affected risk of death.

They found that if a person exercised vigorously once a week before retiring and maintained this frequency post-retirement, they had a three per cent chance of dying in the next six years, six per cent chance if they decreased this frequency to less than weekly and an 11 per cent chance if they stopped exercising vigorously altogether.

“Accordingly, we can see that the effects of physical activity on health were comparable to those associated with maintaining old group memberships and developing new ones,” the researchers wrote.

Janet Morrison, chief executive of charity Independent Age which runs befriending services, said: “This research underlines the importance of making sure older people stay connected to their communities.”

The Yorkshire Post has marked two years since the launch of its award-winning Loneliness: The Hidden Epidemic campaign. Almost a third of the region’s over-65s who live alone – 91,300 – admit to feeling lonely all or most of the time.