Happiness is the key to a longer life

People with the greatest well-being lives longer than people with least well-being a new study says based on an eight-year data research.

The researchers from the University College London (UCL), Princeton University, and Stony Brook University analyzed data from  9,050 participants with an average age of 65. The participants were asked about their “Eudemonic well-being,”. It pertains to the individual’s sense of control, feeling that what you do is worthwhile and sense of purpose in life. the result of the research was adjusted for factors that might affect the result of the survey such as demographics, physical activity and alcohol intake.

Based on the result of the study, only nine percent of the people with great well-being died while 29 percent in the least well-being category died. With all other factors considered, the result of the study shows that people with the highest well-being were 30 percent less likely to die. It means they live two years longer than people do in the least-well-being group.

Professor Andrew Steptoe concludes that the result shows ho happiness is associated with risk of death. “These analyses show that the meaningfulness and sense of purpose that older people have in their lives are also related to survival,” he further added. He is the director of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care who led the study.

“We cannot be sure that higher well-being necessarily causes lower risk of death, since the relationship may not be causal. But the findings raise the intriguing possibility that increasing well-being could help to improve physical health.”

Lastly, Steptoe added, “There are several biological mechanisms that may link well-being to improved health, for example through hormonal changes or reduced blood pressure. Further research is now needed to see if such changes might contribute to the links between well-being and life expectancy in older people.”