Forget the adage about an apple a day. A recent study is pointing to gratitude as the key to health and happiness.
In fact, research suggests that people who regularly notice and appreciate the positive aspects of their lives may have a lower risk of premature death.
To find out how gratitude might affect our health, researchers from the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science surveyed nearly 50,000 older U.S. nurses to assess how often they felt grateful.
Following up three years later, just over 4,600 of the respondents had died. However, those who scored highly on the gratitude questionnaire were 9 percent less likely to have died compared to those who scored the lowest.
Individuals who reported higher levels of gratitude tended to be slightly younger and more likely to be married or in a partnership.
They also had higher socioeconomic status, engaged more in social activities, were more involved in religious practices, exhibited higher levels of optimism, and started the study in better health with lower levels of depression.
Gratitude was assessed using a six-item questionnaire designed to gauge individuals' tendency to feel thankful emotions.
For instance, one item asked participants to rate their agreement with the statement, "I have many things in life to be thankful for." Response options ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).
In contrast, items with negative wording were reverse-coded to ensure that higher scores reflected higher levels of gratitude.
This research has reinforced prior findings indicating that gratitude significantly boosts health and well-being.
Previous studies have indicated that people who regularly express higher levels of thankfulness enjoy a range of benefits that include improved emotional well-being, a decreased risk of depression, enhanced social connections, healthier biomarker profiles, and improved sleep quality.
While individuals showing the highest levels of gratitude in the new study were less likely to experience early mortality, this correlation was not adjusted for other factors, such as physical and mental health and demographic information.
The researchers said they would like to see similar research in a more diverse group of people to confirm the link, but emphasized that there are simple ways we can work on feeling grateful in our lives that may help us in the long run.
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