Enjoying life key to living longer: Study

The team said the effects were “large” and independent of age, sex and wealth, the BBC News reported. Happiness could be used to spot people at risk of ill health, they added. The researchers interviewed the participants three times between 2002 and 2011, assessing them using three measures of psychological well-being and testing their enjoyment of life with a series of questions. The study found that those recorded as having the greatest enjoyment of life at first interview were more likely than other participants to still be alive a decade later.

“The difference between those who enjoyed life the most and those who enjoyed life the least was marked, with nearly three times more people dying in the lower than greater enjoyment group,” the study said. “What we have found is over a nine year period that about 20% of people will pass away during this time,” Professor Andrew Steptoe, who led this part of the research, said. “Out of those people in the highest third of people with the most enjoyment, 9.9% died. Of people in the lowest third of enjoyment 28.8% of them died,” he said. Steptoe said this could be happening

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