The level of happiness can influence the risk of getting sick

A new study of the Alba Iulia University (Romania) published in Frontiers in Medicine has investigated the relationship between happiness and health to discover whether being happier always means being healthier and to determine whether the coexisting happiness and health benefits are linear or follow a specific pattern.

“We show that subjective well-being, or happiness, seems to function as an asset for population health only once a minimum threshold of approximately 2.7 on the scale is exceeded. of the Ladder of Life”, reports the first author, Professor Iulia Iuga, researcher at the University of Alba Iulia.

“Above this critical point, greater happiness is associated with decreased mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs),” he adds.

“The ladder of life can be visualized as a simple rule of happiness from 0 to 10, where 0 means the worst possible life and 10 the best,” describes Iuga. “People imagine where they currently are on that ladder.” The team used data from different health organizations, global development statistics and public opinion surveys. The data came from 123 countries and was collected between 2006 and 2021.

A score of 2.7 is at the lower end of the scale, and people or countries at that level are generally considered unhappy or struggling. “An adjective that would fit at this level might be ‘barely getting by,'” Iuga notes. However, already at this point, improvements in happiness begin to translate into measurable health benefits.

Once the threshold is exceeded and the collective happiness of a country exceeds it, the study revealed that each 1% increase in subjective well-being it is related to a estimated decrease of 0.43% in the mortality rate from NCDs in the period from 30 to 70 years. This rate refers to the percentage of deaths from NCDs in people between 30 and 70 years old.

“Within the observed range, we found no evidence of adverse effects from ‘excessive’ happiness,” Iuga adds. Below the threshold of 2.7 points, small improvements in happiness (for example, from a score of 2 to 2.2) do not translate into a measurable reduction in NCD deaths, the data indicated. Before measurable changes can be achieved, low well-being needs to be remedied, the study suggests.

Countries that surpassed this threshold tend to have higher per capita health spending, stronger social safety nets, and more stable governance, unlike countries that ranked below it. The average score on the life scale of the countries examined during the study period was 5.45, with a minimum of 2.18 and a maximum of 7.97.

There are a number of ways in which governments could raise countries’ scores above 2.7, for example by promoting a healthy life by expanding obesity prevention and restricting access to alcohol; improving the environment through stricter air quality standards; and increasing per capita spending on health. The authors stated that their findings could guide health and social policies, and contribute to integrating well-being into national agendas.

The authors note that the life scale scores that make up their data were self-reported, which could have led to measurement error, differences in cross-cultural response styles, or reporting bias. It is also possible that subnational differences between populations have not been adequately reflected. In the future, studies should include more measures, such as years lived with disability or records of hospital admissions, include subnational microdata, and expand coverage to low-income or conflict states, which might have been overlooked in the data used, the team said.

However, identifying the protective effects of happiness could be an important step towards a healthier population. “Identifying this turning point could provide more precise evidence for health policies,” concludes Iuga. “Happiness is not only a personal feeling, but also a measurable resource for public health.”