Psychological well-being and mortality: longitudinal findings from Lithuanian middle-aged and older adults study

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Abstract

Background

The study aimed to examine whether after confounding by possible socio-demographic and other risk factors, psychological well-being is independently associated with reduced all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.

Methods

Initial data were collected within the framework of the international project HAPIEE in 2006–2008. A random sample of 7115 individuals aged 45–72 years was screened. Deaths were evaluated by death register of Kaunas city (Lithuania) in a follow-up study till 2016. Psychological well-being was evaluated by a CASP-12 questionnaire. Socio-demographic, lifestyle, biologic factors and depressive symptoms were evaluated.

Results

Age-adjusted survival curves revealed that psychological well-being predicts longevity in men and women ( p < 0.001). After adjustment for many possible confounders psychological well-being was independently associated with all-cause mortality in men (HR 0.77; 95% CI 0.62–0.94) and women (HR 0.73; 95% CI 0.56–0.96). However, psychological well-being association with cardiovascular mortality attained statistical significance only in the women’s group (HR 0.53; 95% CI 0.33–0.87), but not in men (HR 0.98; 95% CI 0.72–1.33).

Conclusions

Psychological well-being is an important predictor of longevity, controlling well-recognized risk factors such as age, education, cardiovascular diseases, social status, marital status, lifestyle and biological factors and depressive symptoms. Positive psychological well-being should be taken into account when screening older people to prevent negative health outcomes.

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Andrew Steptoe, Angus Deaton, Arthur A Stone (2015)

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Author and article information

Contributors

Abdonas Tamosiunas: abdonas.tamosiunas@lsmuni.lt

Laura Sapranaviciute-Zabazlajeva: laura.sapranaviciute@lsmuni.lt

Dalia Luksiene: dalia.luksiene@lsmuni.lt

Dalia Virviciute: dalia.virviciute@lsmuni.lt

Anne Peasey: a.peasey@ucl.ac.uk

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

Title: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology

Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg (Berlin/Heidelberg )

ISSN (Print): 0933-7954

ISSN (Electronic): 1433-9285

Publication date (Electronic): 9 January 2019

Publication date PMC-release: 9 January 2019

Publication date (Print): 2019

Volume: 54

Issue: 7

Pages: 803-811

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000 0004 0432 6841, GRID grid.45083.3a, Institute of Cardiology, Medical Academy, , Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, ; Kaunas, Lithuania

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0004 0432 6841, GRID grid.45083.3a, Health Psychology Department, , Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, ; Tilzes str. 18, Kaunas, Lithuania

[3 ]ISNI 0000000121901201, GRID grid.83440.3b, Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, , University College London, ; London, UK

Article

Publisher ID: 1657

DOI: 10.1007/s00127-019-01657-2

PMC ID: 6656792

PubMed ID: 30627758

SO-VID: c3783aeb-870b-424f-a234-b2653d919d59

License:

OpenAccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.