Over four thousand people were followed for six years to assess their chance of dying through any cause.
Even small increases in happiness are linked to living longer, research finds.
Dr Rahul Malhotra, study co-author, said:
“The findings indicate that even small increments in happiness may be beneficial to older people’s longevity.
Therefore individual-level activities as well as government policies and programs that maintain or improve happiness or psychological well-being may contribute to a longer life among older people.”
The results come from 4,478 people aged over 60, living in Singapore.
They were followed for six years to assess their chance of dying through any cause.
The results showed that among unhappy older people, 20% died in the subsequent six years.
However, in happy older people, just 15% had passed away.
Dr June May-Ling Lee, study co-author, said:
“The consistency of the inverse association of happiness with mortality across age groups and gender is insightful — men and women, the young-old and the old-old, all are likely to benefit from an increase in happiness.”
The study was published in the journal Age and Ageing (Chei et al., 2018).
