Written by Joyce Smith, BS. This study suggests that optimism may be an important psycho-social resource for extending life span in older adults.
Optimism refers to a psychological attribute carrying the general expectation that good things will happen, or the belief that the future will be favorable. Previous studies have reported that more optimistic individuals are less apt to suffer chronic diseases and die prematurely 1. While exceptional longevity has been previously linked to one’s genetic profile, emerging evidence suggests that higher optimism is associated with a reduced risk of developing chronic age-related diseases including stroke, coronary heart disease and premature death 2-4. Optimism is shaped not only by heredity (approximately 25%) but also by how our goals are translated into behaviors 5. For example, optimistic people tend to have goals and the confidence to reach them. Perhaps optimism fosters health-promoting habits and bolsters resistance of unhealthy impulses through greater engagement with one’s goals, as well as more effective problem-solving and adjustment of goals when they become unattainable 6. Optimists may have less emotional reactivity to and faster recovery from acute stress when confronted with challenges. They may regulate emotions through cognitive routes such as reframing situations as challenges rather than threats or through behavioral modification such as choosing longer-term goals in lieu of immediate rewards 7.
The objective of this study was to investigate whether higher optimism was associated with longer life span and greater likelihood of achieving exceptional longevity. Researchers Lee et al assessed data from 2 long-term longitudinal cohorts, which included 69,744 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and 1,429 men from the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study (NAS), and which had a follow-up of 10 years (2004 to 2014) and 30 years (1986 to 2016), respectively. Exceptional longevity was defined as survival to age 85 or older.
In both males and females, researchers found a dose-dependent association of higher optimism levels at baseline with increased longevity (P trend <0.01). The results suggest that optimism is related to an average of 11-15% longer lifespan and to a greater odds of achieving “exceptional longevity” of living to the age of 85 or beyond. These results were independent of socioeconomic status, health conditions, depression, social integration, and health behaviors such as diet, smoking, and alcohol use and were similar for both women and men.
These results are consistent with and extend those results from previous studies done by Lee et al 2 as well as other studies 8 in demonstrating associations between higher optimism and lower all-cause mortality risk. The authors hope their findings will inspire further research on interventions that might enhance positive health assets to hopefully improve the aging process and extend longevity.
Source: Lee, Lewina O., Peter James, Emily S. Zevon, Eric S. Kim, Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald, Avron Spiro, Francine Grodstein, and Laura D. Kubzansky. “Optimism is associated with exceptional longevity in 2 epidemiologic cohorts of men and women.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2019): 201900712.
Published under the PNAS license.
Posted September 16, 2019.
Joyce Smith, BS, is a degreed laboratory technologist. She received her bachelor of arts with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from the University of Saskatchewan and her internship through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She currently resides in Bloomingdale, IL.
References:
- Longo VD, Antebi A, Bartke A, et al. Interventions to slow aging in humans: are we ready? Aging cell. 2015;14(4):497-510.
- Kim ES, Hagan KA, Grodstein F, DeMeo DL, De Vivo I, Kubzansky LD. Optimism and cause-specific mortality: a prospective cohort study. American journal of epidemiology. 2017;185(1):21-29.
- Kim ES, Park N, Peterson C. Dispositional optimism protects older adults from stroke: the Health and Retirement Study. Stroke. 2011;42(10):2855-2859.
- Kubzansky LD, Sparrow D, Vokonas P, Kawachi I. Is the glass half empty or half full? A prospective study of optimism and coronary heart disease in the normative aging study. Psychosomatic medicine. 2001;63(6):910-916.
- Carver CS, Scheier MF. Dispositional optimism. Trends in cognitive sciences. 2014;18(6):293-299.
- Kubzansky LD, Boehm JK, Segerstrom SC. Positive psychological functioning and the biology of health. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. 2015;9(12):645-660.
- Rasmussen HN, Wrosch C, Scheier MF, Carver CS. Self‐regulation processes and health: the importance of optimism and goal adjustment. Journal of personality. 2006;74(6):1721-1748.
- Giltay EJ, Geleijnse JM, Zitman FG, Hoekstra T, Schouten EG. Dispositional optimism and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality ina prospective cohort of elderly Dutch men and women. Archives of general psychiatry. 2004;61(11):1126-1135.
