Turns out being unhappy won’t shorten your life

A 10-year study on women’s health found that people’s emotional well-being did not have a direct effect on mortality rates (Picture: Getty)

We’ve always been told happiness is good for our well-being and that poor health ultimately leads to increased mortality.
But it seems that unhappiness doesn’t actually shorten your life, according to new research.

A 10-year study on women’s health found that people’s emotional well-being did not have a direct effect on mortality rates.
The research, published in the Lancet, studied one million women aged 50 and over with the help of data from the NHS and Cancer Research UK.

After three years, the women were given a questionnaire asking them to rate their health, happiness, stress, feelings of control, and whether they felt relaxed.
Five out of six of the women stated that they were generally happy, while one in six said they were unhappy.

The overall death rate among those who were unhappy was the same as the death rate among those who were generally happy (Picture: Getty)

Typically, the perception is that poor health causes unhappiness, which is why unhappiness is linked to increased mortality, researchers say.

But after looking at previous ill health, smoking, and other lifestyle and socio-economic factors, researchers found that unhappiness alone was no longer associated with increased mortality.

The overall death rate among those who were unhappy was the same as the death rate among those who were generally happy.

Dr Bette Liu, who was the lead author of the study, said: ‘Illness makes you unhappy, but unhappiness itself doesn’t make you ill.

‘We found no direct effect of unhappiness or stress on mortality, even in a ten-year study of a million women.’

Subscribe to Our Posts via Email