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Happiness and
satisfaction might lead to better health
Newswise
— It’s the opposite of a vicious cycle:
Healthy people might be happier, and a new
study shows that people who are happy and
satisfied with their lives might be
healthier.
Moreover, the benefit comes
with a quick turnaround time, with greater
happiness possibly boosting health in as
little as three years.
“Everything else being equal,
if you are happy and satisfied with your
life now, you are more likely to be healthy
in the future.
"Importantly,
our results are independent of several
factors that impact on health, such as
smoking, physical activity, alcohol
consumption and age,” said lead author
Mohammad Siahpush, Ph.D.
Siahpush is a professor of
health promotion at the University of
Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The study
appears in the September/October issue of
the American Journal of Health Promotion.
The researchers looked at
data from two waves of an Australian survey
conducted in 2001 and 2004. Nearly 10,000
adults responded to items about health
indicators including the presence of
long-term, limiting health conditions and
physical health. They used the question,
“During the past four weeks, have you been a
happy person?” to assess happiness. They
determined satisfaction with life by asking:
“All things considered, how satisfied are
you with your life?”
“We found strong evidence
that both happiness and life satisfaction
have an effect on our indicators of health,”
Siahpush said.
Happiness and life
satisfaction at the baseline survey were
both associated with (1) excellent, good or
very good health; (2) the absence of
long-term, limiting health concerns and (3)
higher levels of physical health three years
later.
In addition, the results
suggested that improving happiness or life
satisfaction might also result in better
future health.
“There are indications that
as you become happier and more satisfied
with your life, you tend to become healthier
as well,” Siahpush said.
Paul Hershberger, Ph.D., a
professor at the Wright State University
Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton,
Ohio, said he found it interesting that the
researchers were able to isolate happiness
and life satisfaction out of all of the
other factors that can influence future
health. Hershberger was unaffiliated with
the study.
“Their unique contribution is
the short, three-year time period of their
study,” he said.
“To my knowledge, this the
shortest time I’ve seen where looking at
baseline happiness predicts future health.
"It
is compelling to me that measuring someone’s
happiness now accounts for some differences
in physical health in as little as three
years.”
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