Healthy happiness: effects of happiness on physical health and the consequences for preventive health care

By Ruut Veenhoven. 2008

786 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Is happiness good for your health? This common notion is tested in a synthetic analysis of 30 follow-up studies on happiness and longevity. It appears that happiness does not predict longevity in sick populations, but that it does predict longevity among healthy populations So, happiness does not cure illness but it does protect against becoming ill. The effect of happiness on longevity in healthy populations is remarkably strong. The size of the effect is comparable to that of smoking or not.If so, public health can also be promoted by policies that aim at greater happiness of a greater number. That can be done by strengthening individual life-abilities and by improving the livability of the social environment. Some policies are proposed. Both ways of promoting health through happiness require more research on conditions for happiness.

Subfields: Health, Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9ed2e706298b2f7cfb699c4a8c1b1815a6c6226b

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Citations in the corpus

How universal is happiness (2008, methodology): “…nations 2006 ___________________________________________________________ Scheme 4 Denmark 8.2 Sweden 7.7 USA 7.4 Germany 7.2 France 6.5 Philippines 6.4 Japan 6.2 Turkey 5.2 Russia 4.4 Zimbabwe 3.3 Average in 86 nations 6.5 Source: World Database of Happiness, Happiness in Nations (Veenhoven, 2008).”
Greater Happiness for a Greater Number (2010, positive): “Happiness also lengthens life considerably, the effect of happiness is comparable to smoking, or not (Veenhoven, 2008).”
Sustainable happiness: How happiness studies can contribute to a more sustainable future. (2008, background): “Veenhoven (2008) completed an extensive survey of studies regarding the relationship between happiness and physical well-being and found that there is a significant relationship between happiness and longevity.”
Associations between religiosity, mental health, and subjective well-being among Arabic samples from Egypt and Kuwait (2012, result): “…of Happiness; Veenhoven, 2002) have been published (Argyle, 2002; Aspinwall & Staudinger, 2003; Chang, 2001; Diener, Lucas, & Oishi, 2002; Gillham, 2000; Lopez & Snyder, 2003; Seligman, 2000; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Snyder, 2000; Snyder & McCullough, 2000; Veenhoven, 2008, 2010).”
Humor Styles, Positive Personality and Health (2010, background): “Research supports the health benefits of greater optimism (Carver, Scheier, & Miller, 2009), higher levels of hope as a stable trait differences in happiness (Siahpush, Spittal, & Singh, 2008; Veenhoven, 2008).”
Resident Attitudes to Tourism and Their Effect on Subjective Well-Being (2012, background): “Happy people live longer (Danner, Snowdon, and Friesen 2001), have more satisfying relationships (Lyubomirksy and King 2005), and are in better health as happiness protects against becoming ill (Veenhoven 2008).”
Capability and Happiness: Conceptual difference and reality links (2010, background): “Key words: Capability, Happiness, Life-chances, Cross-national, Longitudinal, Research synthesis JEL classification: B00, D63, I00, I121, I130, Y80 1 INTRODUCTION The ‘capability approach’ is a strand in welfare economics that focuses on “freedom to promote valuable beings and doings” rather than on”
Cross-national differences in happiness: Cultural measurement bias or effect of culture? (2012, background): “I found that happiness is strongly correlated to physical and mental health and that happiness is predictive of longevity (Veenhoven 2008).”
Happy People Live Longer: Subjective Well-Being Contributes to Health and Longevity (2011, background): “In terms of additional life-years, Veenhoven (2008) estimated that the effects of SWB on longevity might be 7.5 to 10.0 years, based on a small number of studies that reported effect size in life-year unites.”
Religiosity, subjective well-being, self-esteem, and anxiety among Kuwaiti Muslim adolescents (2011, background): “Moreover, several studies carried out on Christian and Jewish western participants have reached the same conclusion (e.g., Ellison, 1991; Hackney & Sanders, 2003; Harris, 2002; Harris et al., 2002; Hill & Pargament, 2003; Koenig, 1997; Koenig et al., 2001; Levin & Chatters, 1998; Veenhoven, 2008).”