Happier people are more successful in their careers, have more fulfilling relationships, and live longer and healthier lives, previous research has shown. Now scientists say they have found the “threshold of happiness,” writes CNN.
According to a study published on October 20 in the journal “Frontiers in Medicine”, the level of happiness of a country's population can influence the risk of premature death from chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and respiratory diseases.
The research team used a scale called the Life Ladder to estimate happiness levels in 123 countries. Zero means the worst possible life you can imagine and 10 means the best.
The researchers found that when a country's score exceeded 2.7, happiness was associated with a decline in deaths from chronic or non-communicable diseases among people aged 30 to 70. Scores ranged from 2.18 to 7.97, with an average of 5.45.
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Happy are we healthier?
For countries that meet or exceed the 2.7 threshold, said study author Iulia Iuga, a professor at the University of Alba Iulia in Romania, “improvement in well-being can measurably increase life expectancy once societies achieve a baseline level of stability and satisfaction.”
According to the study, every 1 percent an increase in well-being correlated with a decrease of 0.43%. mortality rate from chronic diseases among adults aged 30 to 70.
What is happiness? It's not about fleeting emotions
The research adds to the existing body of literature linking happiness and health, Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the study, told CNN.
“Traditionally, happiness is seen as a kind of luxury. It's a nice feeling,” Lyubomirsky said. A new study shows that “happiness may be a variable influencing public health. It's about more than just fun and pleasure.”
Happiness is only one aspect of human health. Genetic, behavioral and environmental factors also play a role in the risk of dying from chronic diseases.
“We don't want to leave people with the impression that if they were just happier, they would be healthier and everything would be fine,” Lubomirska said.
It's also important to avoid placing blame, she added. “You don't want to say, 'If you don't live that long, it's your fault because you're not happy enough,'” she said.
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How to be happy?
The researchers pointed to incomplete data on conflict-affected and low-income countries as a limitation of the study. Furthermore, the analysis of longevity is limited because data on mortality from non-communicable diseases did not cover the period beyond the age of 70.
Saida Heshmati, director of the HEART Lab, which studies emotions and the relationship between time and culture at Claremont Graduate University in California, told CNN that happiness is not a word she would use to describe the phenomenon under study.
“When we talk about happiness, people tend to think about experiencing more positive emotions — joy, meaning and fulfillment,” Heshmati said. “(The Ladder of Life) doesn't necessarily include those elements.”
“It's not about happiness as a fleeting emotion” said Heshmati. “It's really about an overall cognitive assessment of life satisfaction, which reflects whether societies provide people with the material, social and psychological foundations for development.”
The impact of happiness on health
Countries with higher per-capita health care spending—for doctor visits and prescription drugs, for example—were generally above the happiness threshold.
Heshmati likes to see the threshold of happiness as the threshold of stability. “When you're below that threshold, it feels like you're in stress and survival mode.” she said, which could have physiological consequences.
While an individual's well-being overall reflects the nation's happiness, Heshmati cautions against applying the study's conclusions to one's own health and risk of dying from chronic diseases.
“We can't just say that being or feeling slightly happy directly changes biology,” she said.
Source: CNN
