Psychological Well-Being and Physical Health: Associations, Mechanisms, and Future Directions

In the paper

“In experimental trials, more long-term and enduring improvements in mental health are documented for interventions seeking to boost eudaimonic well-being versus those emphasizing pursuit of hedonia”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Huta & Ryan, 2010

In the paper

“only vigor and well-being, but not calm, were protective against development of a cold”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Cohen et al., 2003

In the paper

“correlation coefficients (r’s) across well-being domains ranged from as low as 0.13 to moderate values of 0.62.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Keyes et al., 2002

In the paper

“self-reported positive affect (i.e., positive affect items from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)) was not predictive of incident cardiovascular disease (stoke, heart failure, CHD) over an 11.9-year follow-up period”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Freak-Poli et al., 2015

In the paper

“when compared to hedonic indices, eudaimonia is associated with more favorable psychological functioning and overall well-being”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Steger, Kashdan, & Oishi, 2008

In the paper

“In this sample of 1,739 Nova Scotians, each unit increase in staff-coded positive affect was associated with 22% reduced odds of a cardiac event within 10 years, controlling for socio-demographic factors, major cardiovascular disease risk factors (e.g., smoking status), and psychological distress”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Davidson, Mostofsky, & Whang, 2010

In the paper

“Keyes et al. (2002) identified two correlated latent factors reflecting eudaimonic and hedonic aspects.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Keyes et al., 2002

In the paper

“After 8 years of follow-up, life satisfaction was associated with reduced risk for chronic illness incidence in their cohort of ~28,704 women”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Feller, Teucher, Kaaks, Boeing, & Vigl, 2013

In the paper

“co-occurence of opposite-valenced emotions is not only conceivable but indeed commonplace”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Larsen et al., 2014

In the paper

“After controlling for sex, race, education, body mass index (BMI), month of exposure, virus type, immune factors, and negative affect (depression, anxiety and hostility), positive affect was related to lower likelihood of developing a cold up to five days after exposure.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Cohen, Doyle, Turner, Alper, & Skoner, 2003

In the paper

“For most of the studies included in the meta-analysis, the effects remain significant even when adjusted for covariates such as age, gender, and negative affect or ill-being”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Boyle, Barnes, Buchman, & Bennett, 2009
• Not checked yetcites Gruenewald, Karlamangla, Greendale, Singer, & Seeman, 2007
• Not checked yetcites Hill & Turiano, 2014

In the paper

“those with greater comparative optimism at termination of therapy were less likely to experience an adverse outcome within 12 months”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Hevey, McGee, & Horgan, 2014

In the paper

“When hedonic and eudaimonic constructs were both included as predictors of longevity, eudaimonic constructs remain significant whereas hedonic drop to non-significance”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Hill & Turiano, 2014

In the paper

“more favorable baseline levels of emotional vitality (but not optimism) were associated with lower odds for developing hypertension after 3 years of follow-up”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Trudel-Fitzgerald, Boehm, Kivimaki, & Kubzansky, 2014

In the paper

“Associations were slightly attenuated but remained statistically significant when controlling for health behavior adherence and psychological ill-being”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Boehm et al., 2011

In the paper

“In models controlling for traditional CVD risk factors and depressive symptoms, each SD increase in emotional vitality resulted in 11% reduction in stroke risk (mean follow-up of 16.3 years).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Lambiase, Kubzansky, & Thurston, 2015

In the paper

“In people living with HIV, positive affect and related positive constructs are uniquely associated with slower disease progression”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Ironson et al., 2005
• Not checked yetcites Ironson & Hayward, 2008

In the paper

“Cohen et al (2016) report a meta-analysis of eudaimonic constructs including purpose in life, life meaning, and life engagement that demonstrates a significant protective effect with respect to mortality.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Cohen et al., 2016

In the paper

“Ronaldson et al. (2014) found greater levels of optimism, as measured pre-operatively, to be inversely associated with self-reported pain intensity and adverse physical symptoms (e.g., bruising, numbness, swelling) in patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Ronaldson et al., 2014

In the paper

“a protective effect was evident with significantly lower risk for myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death, and stroke (RR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.75–0.92) when pooling across 10 studies”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Cohen, Bavishi, & Rozanski, 2016

In the paper

“Applied studies of people experiencing major life stressors such as caregiving demonstrate that it is common for positive and negative affect to co-occur; to experience positive affect despite high levels of stress and distress”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Folkman, 1997

In the paper

“Women with greater levels of ikigai had lower odds of developing breast cancer (RR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.47–0.94) over a 7.5-year period, independent of sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, and individual/familial medical history.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Wakai et al., 2007

In the paper

“the bulk of published research indicating that constructs such as optimism, positive affect, life satisfaction, and happiness are associated with longer life, independent of the effect of negative constructs”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Chida & Steptoe, 2008
• Not checked yetcites Diener & Chan, 2011
• Not checked yetcites Howell, Kern, & Lyubomirsky, 2007

In the paper

“In this ELSA cohort, psychological well-being was unrelated to risk for stroke, myocardial infarction, and cancer when controlling for traditional risk factors.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Okely & Gale, 2016

In the paper

“Effect modification was evident across age categories (<65 vs. ≥65), explicitly for diabetes and lung disease, where associations remained significant only for those <65 years of age.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Okely & Gale, 2016

In the paper

“However, null findings are also reported using data of the Whitehall II cohort study (Nabi, Kivimaki, De Vogli, Marmot, & Singh-Manoux, 2008) which employed a scale specifically designed to capture positive affect (i.e., Bradburn Affect Balance Scale).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Nabi, Kivimaki, De Vogli, Marmot, & Singh-Manoux, 2008

In the paper

“investigators noted a dose-response relationship whereby a monotonic decrease in heart failure risk was observed with each stepwise increase in optimism”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Kim et al., 2014

In the paper

“positive resources, a scale that combined the hedonic index of positive affect items (e.g., joyful, hopeful, happy), positive expectancies regarding HIV (“if I take care of myself, I will not get sick with HIV”), and eudaimonic meaning-making was associated with significantly slower disease progression and lower risk of mortality controlling for viral load, demographics, and depression.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Ickovics et al., 2006

In the paper

“researchers often statically control for a number of constructs, including some of the variables that are hypothesized as potential mediators of the association between psychological well-being and health”

In the paper

“additional well-being constructs show a robust health-protective effect including positive affect and life satisfaction.”

In the paper

“although limited, there is some evidence that eudaimonic well-being may be a stronger predictor of longevity when included in the same model as hedonic well-being.”

In the paper

“In many cases, the effect remains significant when measures of ill-being and physical health are controlled”

In the paper

“A variety of well-being constructs emerge as protective factors against disease onset.”

In the paper

“A number of factors appear to moderate the association of psychological well-being and health including gender, age, and co-occurring stressful life events.”

In the paper

“eudaimonic aspects of well-being are greatly neglected when examining the health protective effects of psychological well-being as very little empirical work includes eudaimonic constructs”

In the paper

“we reviewed a body of recent literature demonstrating that psychological well-being is associated with greater health and prolonged life.”

In the paper

“Thus, we know little about whether discrete domains of well-being differentially relate to health.”

In the paper

“there is lack of consistency when defining and sorting across well-being domains.”

In the paper

“However, findings are not entirely consistent and a number of questions remain”

In the paper

“As the majority of research on psychological well-being and health emerges from fields of medicine and epidemiology, the measurement focus has mainly been on the physical health outcome rather than the well-being predictors.”

In the paper

“A majority of the studies examining the link between psychological well-being and health are observational.”

In the paper

“biologic dysregulation as measured via cortisol output, heart rate variability, blood pressure, and markers of inflammation (Interleukin 6 and C-reactive protein) is less prevalent among individuals reporting positive psychological well-being”

In the paper

“recent studies of a number of different psychological well-being constructs including positive affect, life satisfaction, happiness, purpose in life, and optimism indicate that psychological well-being predicts longevity in univariate analyses.”

In the paper

“the detrimental health effects associated with psychological ill-being (e.g., depression, anxiety) have been well documented”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Boehm, Trudel-Fitzgerald, Kivimaki, & Kubzansky, 2015
• Not checked yetcites Cuijpers & Smit, 2002
• Not checked yetcites Suls, 2017

In the paper

“positive and negative emotions are independent psychological states”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Cacioppo & Berntson, 1994
• Not checked yetcites Larsen & McGraw, 2014
• Not checked yetcites Larsen, McGraw, & Cacioppo, 2001

In the paper

“given heterogeneity in conception of psychological well-being and heterogeneity in disease states explored, it is premature to infer differential health effects across well-being subdomains or subtypes.”

In the paper

“Thus, those participants who were able to maintain their positive affect in response to a stressful event, lived longer.”

In the paper

“In summary, psychological well-being appears to be related to lower risk of illness onset and slower disease progression across a number of different samples and types of well-being measures, even when other predictors of health are included in the model (e.g., health behaviors).”

In the paper

“optimism was related to greater treatment adherence in cardiac patients (van Montfort, Denollet, Widdershoven, & Kupper, 2016).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites van Montfort, Denollet, Widdershoven, & Kupper, 2016

In the paper

“This study suggests that in addition to paying attention to the particular items used to measure well-being, it is important to consider retrospective time frame (e.g., past day, past week) as well as affective reactivity in response to stress.”

In the paper

“The effect for men fell to marginal significance when the model was adjusted for health behaviors like smoking, health conditions like obesity, and living alone.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Nilsson et al. (2011)

In the paper

“This finding suggests a need to include both hedonic and eudaimonic constructs in order to best capture the effects of well-being and longevity.”

In the paper

“However, when the model included sociodemographic, health behavior, and health variables, the effect became nonsignificant.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Liu et al., 2016

In the paper

“Without experimental trials that explicitly manipulate psychological well-being and demonstrate effects on health-relevant outcomes, the causal direction of the link between psychological well-being and health remains open to question.”

In the paper

“we argue that psychological well-being is a key factor in the effect of psychology on physical health”

In the paper

“Nilsson et al. (2011) found that positive (hedonic) well-being (as measured by a subscale of the Psychological General Well-Being questionnaire (Dupuy, 1984) that included items assessing cheerfulness, happiness, and interest) was associated with lower risk of mortality for men, but not women in a sample of 75 year-olds in Sweden.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Nilsson et al. (2011)

In the paper

“In other words, the statistical controls eliminated many of the likely pathways through which positive affect influenced mortality and thus it wasn’t particularly surprising that positive affect didn’t predict over and above these likely mechanistic pathways.”

In the paper

“In the study by Wiest and colleagues (2011), cited above, the significant effect of life satisfaction and positive affect on longevity fell to non-significance when self-rated health and physical activity were included in the model.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Wiest et al. (2011)

In the paper

“persons with favorable psychological well-being are said to possess more adaptive psychological profiles characterized by healthful coping strategies (e.g., positive reappraisal), increased social connectedness, and reduced cognitive catastrophizing”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000

In the paper

“Mroczek et al. (2015) were able to identify that it was the positive affect response to daily stressors vs. level of positive or negative affect that was key in predicting longevity.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Mroczek et al. (2015)

In the paper

“Negating simultaneous inclusion across regression models, this meta-analysis examined individual effects of each well-being indicator without pitting constructs against each other.”

In the paper

“This finding indicates that life satisfaction and positive affect may influence longevity through different pathways.”