People who join social or community groups after they retire live for longer, a new study has found.

According to the findings, the more groups a person belongs to in the first few years after they finish work, the lower their risk of death.

Retirement is a major change to anyone's life and previous research has suggested that the health and wellbeing of many people who retire begins to decline in the aftermath. However, others appear to find the transition less difficult.

Researchers set out to assess the impact of social groups on people who have retired. They monitored the health of 424 people for six years after they had finished working.

All of the participants lived in England and were over the age of 50. Each was asked in detail about the various clubs, organisations and societies they belonged to. They also had their physical health and quality of life assessed.

Just 6% of the participants died during the course of the study and as expected, the strongest predictor of death was age.

However, the researchers also found that membership of groups was a significant predictor of death.

If a person was a member of two groups, such as a book club or church group, their risk of death was 2%. This rose to 5% if they gave up one of these groups, and to 12% if they gave up the two groups.

No such patterns were found in those who were still working.

Furthermore, the researchers found that the impact of joining groups was similar to the impact associated with regular exercise.

"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," they noted.

They said that while the reasons for this are unclear, these findings could have unique implications for people who are facing retirement.

"They suggest that as much as practitioners may help retirees adjust by providing support with financial planning, they may also help by providing social planning.

"In this regard, practical interventions should focus on helping retirees to maintain their sense of purpose and belonging by assisting them to connect to groups and communities that are meaningful to them," the team from the University of Queensland in Australia concluded.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, BMJ Open.