Low Life Satisfaction Linked To Increased Mortality Risk

Researchers at Chapman University found a link between greater life satisfaction in adults older than 50 years of age and reduced risk of mortality, based on nearly 4,500 participants who were followed for up to nine years.

Throughout the course of the study, researchers discovered that as participants' life satisfaction increased, their mortality risk was reduced by up to 18 percent. Furthermore, greater variability in life satisfaction was associated with a 20 percent increased risk of mortality and individuals with high levels of life satisfaction tended to have a reduced risk of mortality regardless of how their life satisfaction varied over time.

"This is the first study to consider the effects of life satisfaction on the risk of mortality when life satisfaction is summarized across as many as nine repeated assessments," said Julia Boehm, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Chapman University, in a news release. "Having multiple assessments of life satisfaction also allowed us to examine how variability in satisfaction across time might be related to longevity, which has never been investigated before."

The findings suggest that fluctuating levels of life satisfaction matter for mortality risk only when life satisfaction is relatively low.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Psychological Science.

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