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Does happiness itself directly affect mortality? The prospective UK Million Women Study.

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Title: Does happiness itself directly affect mortality? The prospective UK Million Women Study.
Authors: Liu, Bette, Floud, Sarah, Pirie, Kirstin, Green, Jane, Peto, Richard, Beral, Valerie, Million Women Study Collaborators (CORPORATE AUTHOR)
Source: Lancet. 2/27/2016, Vol. 387 Issue 10021, p874-881. 8p.
Subjects: Health & psychology, Happiness, Emotions, Well-being, Women's mortality, Coronary disease, Health status indicators, Longitudinal method, Mortality, Research funding, Tumors, Proportional hazards models
Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
Abstract: Background: Poor health can cause unhappiness and poor health increases mortality. Previous reports of reduced mortality associated with happiness could be due to the increased mortality of people who are unhappy because of their poor health. Also, unhappiness might be associated with lifestyle factors that can affect mortality. We aimed to establish whether, after allowing for the poor health and lifestyle of people who are unhappy, any robust evidence remains that happiness or related subjective measures of wellbeing directly reduce mortality.Methods: The Million Women Study is a prospective study of UK women recruited between 1996 and 2001 and followed electronically for cause-specific mortality. 3 years after recruitment, the baseline questionnaire for the present report asked women to self-rate their health, happiness, stress, feelings of control, and whether they felt relaxed. The main analyses were of mortality before Jan 1, 2012, from all causes, from ischaemic heart disease, and from cancer in women who did not have heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive lung disease, or cancer at the time they answered this baseline questionnaire. We used Cox regression, adjusted for baseline self-rated health and lifestyle factors, to calculate mortality rate ratios (RRs) comparing mortality in women who reported being unhappy (ie, happy sometimes, rarely, or never) with those who reported being happy most of the time.Findings: Of 719,671 women in the main analyses (median age 59 years [IQR 55-63]), 39% (282,619) reported being happy most of the time, 44% (315,874) usually happy, and 17% (121,178) unhappy. During 10 years (SD 2) follow-up, 4% (31,531) of participants died. Self-rated poor health at baseline was strongly associated with unhappiness. But after adjustment for self-rated health, treatment for hypertension, diabetes, asthma, arthritis, depression, or anxiety, and several sociodemographic and lifestyle factors (including smoking, deprivation, and body-mass index), unhappiness was not associated with mortality from all causes (adjusted RR for unhappy vs happy most of the time 0·98, 95% CI 0·94-1·01), from ischaemic heart disease (0·97, 0·87-1·10), or from cancer (0·98, 0·93-1·02). Findings were similarly null for related measures such as stress or lack of control.Interpretation: In middle-aged women, poor health can cause unhappiness. After allowing for this association and adjusting for potential confounders, happiness and related measures of wellbeing do not appear to have any direct effect on mortality.Funding: UK Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Lancet is the property of Lancet and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
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  Data: Does happiness itself directly affect mortality? The prospective UK Million Women Study.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Liu%2C+Bette%22">Liu, Bette</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Floud%2C+Sarah%22">Floud, Sarah</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Pirie%2C+Kirstin%22">Pirie, Kirstin</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Green%2C+Jane%22">Green, Jane</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Peto%2C+Richard%22">Peto, Richard</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Beral%2C+Valerie%22">Beral, Valerie</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Million+Women+Study+Collaborators%22">Million Women Study Collaborators</searchLink> (CORPORATE AUTHOR)
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Lancet%22">Lancet</searchLink>. 2/27/2016, Vol. 387 Issue 10021, p874-881. 8p.
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  Data: <bold>Background: </bold>Poor health can cause unhappiness and poor health increases mortality. Previous reports of reduced mortality associated with happiness could be due to the increased mortality of people who are unhappy because of their poor health. Also, unhappiness might be associated with lifestyle factors that can affect mortality. We aimed to establish whether, after allowing for the poor health and lifestyle of people who are unhappy, any robust evidence remains that happiness or related subjective measures of wellbeing directly reduce mortality.<bold>Methods: </bold>The Million Women Study is a prospective study of UK women recruited between 1996 and 2001 and followed electronically for cause-specific mortality. 3 years after recruitment, the baseline questionnaire for the present report asked women to self-rate their health, happiness, stress, feelings of control, and whether they felt relaxed. The main analyses were of mortality before Jan 1, 2012, from all causes, from ischaemic heart disease, and from cancer in women who did not have heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive lung disease, or cancer at the time they answered this baseline questionnaire. We used Cox regression, adjusted for baseline self-rated health and lifestyle factors, to calculate mortality rate ratios (RRs) comparing mortality in women who reported being unhappy (ie, happy sometimes, rarely, or never) with those who reported being happy most of the time.<bold>Findings: </bold>Of 719,671 women in the main analyses (median age 59 years [IQR 55-63]), 39% (282,619) reported being happy most of the time, 44% (315,874) usually happy, and 17% (121,178) unhappy. During 10 years (SD 2) follow-up, 4% (31,531) of participants died. Self-rated poor health at baseline was strongly associated with unhappiness. But after adjustment for self-rated health, treatment for hypertension, diabetes, asthma, arthritis, depression, or anxiety, and several sociodemographic and lifestyle factors (including smoking, deprivation, and body-mass index), unhappiness was not associated with mortality from all causes (adjusted RR for unhappy vs happy most of the time 0·98, 95% CI 0·94-1·01), from ischaemic heart disease (0·97, 0·87-1·10), or from cancer (0·98, 0·93-1·02). Findings were similarly null for related measures such as stress or lack of control.<bold>Interpretation: </bold>In middle-aged women, poor health can cause unhappiness. After allowing for this association and adjusting for potential confounders, happiness and related measures of wellbeing do not appear to have any direct effect on mortality.<bold>Funding: </bold>UK Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Lancet is the property of Lancet and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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        Value: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01087-9
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      – SubjectFull: Happiness
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      – SubjectFull: Emotions
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      – SubjectFull: Well-being
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      – SubjectFull: United Kingdom
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      – TitleFull: Does happiness itself directly affect mortality? The prospective UK Million Women Study.
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              Text: 2/27/2016
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