Gratitude can help you live longer, study finds
As well as spiking happy feelings in the present, practicing gratitude could come with the serious long-term benefits of extending your lifespan, new research has found. The work, published by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is the first study to collect data on the relationship between gratitude and mortality.
How was the research conducted?
Using data from the Nurses' Health Study of over 49,000 mature women, researchers observed that those whose scores were in the highest third of a gratitude questionnaire had a 9% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who scored in the bottom third, particularly when it came to cardiovascular disease (conditions affecting your heart and blood vessels, including heart disease and heart attacks.)
Participants were required to complete the six-item gratitude questionnaire in 2016 – when the average participant age was 79 – by agreeing or disagreeing with statements such as 'I have so much in life to be thankful for' and 'If I had to list everything that I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list'.
In 2019, the team then followed up to check if any deaths had occurred and what the reasons were, ranging from all-cause mortality to the more specific cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease, neurodegenerative disease, infection, and injury. Of the 4,608 deaths over the study period, cardiovascular disease was the most common cause.
What are the study's possible drawbacks?
To quantify gratitude's impact on life length accurately, the study claims that it was 'conservative' in its approach when taking into account other criteria like social participation, religious involvement and optimism, which often overlap with gratitude. In other words, there is the caveat that those who are grateful are probably also actively involved in aspects of community life that promote healthy ageing by fostering stronger relationships. Indeed, a study published in the journal Social Science & Medicine has shown that continuing to invest in mutual and trusting social ties is linked to longevity and – as another study suggested – lower levels of functional decline.
Plus, data was exclusively gathered from nurses, meaning that the full scope of a possible impact of gratitude on other lifestyles and professions wasn't examined.
'Prior research indicates that there are ways of intentionally fostering gratitude, such as writing down or discussing what you are grateful for a few times a week,' said lead author Ying Chen, research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology. 'Promoting healthy aging is a public health priority, and we hope further studies will improve our understanding of gratitude as psychological resource for enhancing longevity.'
'Prior research has shown an association between gratitude and lower risk of mental distress and greater emotional and social wellbeing. However, its association with physical health is less understood,” said Chen. “Our study provides the first empirical evidence on this topic, suggesting that experiencing grateful affect may increase longevity among older adults.'
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