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Cited by 2,455

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 17 of the 17 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Subjective wellbeing, health, and ageing

Open access
Steptoe, Andrew, Deaton, Angus, Stone, Arthur A·2015·The Lancet
DOI 10.1016/s0140-6736(13)61489-0
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Abstract

Summary Psychological wellbeing and health are closely linked at older ages. Three aspects of psychological wellbeing can be distinguished: evaluative wellbeing (or life satisfaction), hedonic wellbeing (feelings of happiness, sadness, etc), and eudemonic wellbeing (sense of purpose and meaning in life). We review recent advances in this field, and present new analyses concerning the pattern of wellbeing across ages and the association between wellbeing and survival at older ages. The Gallup World Poll, an ongoing survey in more than 160 countries, shows a U-shaped relationship between evaluative wellbeing and age in rich, English speaking countries, with the lowest levels of wellbeing around ages 45-54. But this pattern is not universal: for example, respondents from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe show a large progressive decline in wellbeing with age; Latin America also shows falling wellbeing with age, while wellbeing in sub-Saharan Africa shows little change with age. The relationship between physical health and subjective wellbeing is bidirectional. Older people suffering from illnesses such as coronary heart disease, arthritis and chronic lung disease show both raised levels of depressed mood and impaired hedonic and eudemonic wellbeing. Wellbeing may also have a protective role in health maintenance. In an illustrative analyses from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), we find that eudemonic wellbeing is associated with longer survival; 29.3% of people in the lowest wellbeing quartile died over the average follow-up period of 8.5 years compared with 9.3% of those in the highest quartile. Associations were independent of age, gender, demographic factors, and baseline mental and physical health. We conclude that the wellbeing of the elderly is an important objective for both economic and health policy. Current psychological and economic theories do not adequately account for the variations in pattern of wellbeing with age across different parts of the world. The apparent association between wellbeing and survival is consistent with a protective role of high wellbeing, but alternative explanations cannot be ruled out at this stage.

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Citations

Cites

Show all 17 references

Research works printed but not linked: 24

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Cited by

Metadata

Authors
Steptoe, A., Deaton, A., & Stone, A. A.
Venue
The Lancet
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015-02
Volume
385
Issue
9968
Pages
640-648
ISSN
  • 0099-5355 (ISSN-L)
  • 0140-6736
DOI
10.1016/s0140-6736(13)61489-0
OpenAlex
W1970693737
Cited by
2,455
References
17
FWCI
117.79
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Funders
  • US National Institute on Ageing (grants 2RO1AG7644–01A1 and 2RO1AG017644)
  • US National Institute on Aging through the National Bureau of Economic Research (grants 5R01AG040629–02 and P01 AG05842–14)

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