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Happiness and longevity in the United States

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  • Lawrence, Elizabeth M.
  • Rogers, Richard G.
  • Wadsworth, Tim

Abstract

This is the first study to our knowledge to examine the relationship between happiness and longevity among a nationally representative sample of adults. We use the recently-released General Social Survey-National Death Index dataset and Cox proportional hazards models to reveal that overall happiness is related to longer lives among U.S. adults. Indeed, compared to very happy people, the risk of death over the follow-up period is 6% (95% CI 1.01–1.11) higher among individuals who are pretty happy and 14% (95% CI 1.06–1.22) higher among those who are not happy, net of marital status, socioeconomic status, census division, and religious attendance. This study provides support for happiness as a stand-alone indicator of well-being that should be used more widely in social science and health research.

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  • Lawrence, Elizabeth M. & Rogers, Richard G. & Wadsworth, Tim, 2015. "Happiness and longevity in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 115-119.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:145:y:2015:i:c:p:115-119
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.09.020
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    2. Brown, Dustin C, 2019. "Comparability of Mortality Estimates from Social Surveys and Vital Statistics Data in the United States," SocArXiv x9f5y, Center for Open Science.
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    6. Miething, Alexander & Mewes, Jan & Giordano, Giuseppe N., 2020. "Trust, happiness and mortality: Findings from a prospective US population-based survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
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    10. Anna Maccagnan & Sam Wren-Lewis & Helen Brown & Tim Taylor, 2019. "Wellbeing and Society: Towards Quantification of the Co-benefits of Wellbeing," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 217-243, January.
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    12. Elizabeth M. Lawrence & Richard G. Rogers & Anna Zajacova & Tim Wadsworth, 2019. "Marital Happiness, Marital Status, Health, and Longevity," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 1539-1561, June.
    13. Yingying Jiang & Chan Lu & Jing Chen & Yufeng Miao & Yuguo Li & Qihong Deng, 2022. "Happiness in University Students: Personal, Familial, and Social Factors: A Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-12, April.
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    15. Yongfeng Ma & Shuyan Chen & Aemal J. Khattak & Zheng Cao & Muhammad Zubair & Xue Han & Xiaojian Hu, 2022. "What Affects Emotional Well-Being during Travel? Identifying the Factors by Maximal Information Coefficient," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-10, April.

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