Enjoying Life and Living Longer

Steptoe, Andrew

doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.1028

Cited by 118 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Steptoe and Wardle 12 have previously shown that enjoyment of life predicted survival over a 7-year period, independently of covariates. The present results indicate that future functional decline is associated with enjoyment of life.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…and pleasure) 11 as described previously. 12 The 4 items of the subscale were "I enjoy the things that I do," "I enjoy being in the company of others," "On balance, I look back on my life with a sense of happiness" and "I feel full of energy these days"; each was rated on a 4-point scale from 0 (never) to 3 (often), and ratings were summed to generate a total score. The Cronbach α for the scale was 0.65, and the test-retest correlation was 0.61 over 2 years and 0.53 over 8 years.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Enjoyment of life and declining physical function at older ages: a longitudinal cohort study

Steptoe

Oliveira

Demakakos

et al. 2014

CMAJ

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114

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Background: Positive affective well-being (i.e., feelings of happiness and enjoyment) has been associated with longer survival and reduced incidence of serious illness. Our objective was to discover whether enjoyment of life also predicted a reduced risk of functional impairment over an 8-year period in a large population sample. Methods:We carried out a prospective analysis involving 3199 men and women aged 60 years or older from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Enjoyment of life was assessed by questionnaire. Outcomes were impairment in 2 or more activities of daily living and changes in gait speed on a walking test. Covariates included sociodemographic factors, baseline health, depressive symptoms, impairment of mobility and health behaviours.Results: Two or more impaired activities of daily living developed among 4.4%, 11.7% and 16.8% of participants in the high, medium and low enjoyment-of-life tertiles, respectively. After adjustment for covariates, the odds of impaired activities of daily living developing were 1.83 (95% confidence interval 1.13-2.96) in the low compared with high tertile. Gait speed after 8 years was also related to baseline enjoyment of life after adjustment for gait speed and other covariates at baseline (p < 0.001). We obtained similar results when we limited analyses to participants younger than 70 years at baseline.Interpretation: This is an observational study, so causal conclusions cannot be drawn. But our results provide evidence that reduced enjoyment of life may be related to the future disability and mobility of older people. and pleasure) 11 as described previously. 12 The 4 items of the subscale were "I enjoy the things that I do," "I enjoy being in the company of others," "On balance, I look back on my life with a sense of happiness" and "I feel full of energy these days"; each was rated on a 4-point scale from 0 (never) to 3 (often), and ratings were summed to generate a total score. The Cronbach α for the scale was 0.65, and the test-retest correlation was 0.61 over 2 years and 0.53 over 8 years.Impairments of activities of daily living were assessed during personal interviews using a measure developed for the Health and Retirement Study. 13 Respondents were asked if they had any difficulty with 6 activities because of a physical, mental, emotional or memory problem. Individual items are listed in Appendix 1, available at www .cmaj .ca /lookup /suppl /doi :10 .1503 /cmaj .131155 /-/DC1. Difficulties that were expected to last less than 6 months were excluded. We used 2 or more impaired activities of daily living to define impairment, because a single item may have fewer implications for social care. However, results of our analysis of the development of a single impaired activity of daily living were similar to those reported here. Gait speed was assessed with two 8-foot walking tests from a standing start; the tests were carried out in the participants' homes under the supervision of a trained interviewer. Individuals who had health conditions or disabilities th...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enjoyment of life and declining physical function at older ages: a longitudinal cohort study

Steptoe

Oliveira

Demakakos

et al. 2014

CMAJ

Self Cite

114

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Email: a.steptoe@ucl.ac.uk. Subjective wellbeing was assessed in terms of enjoyment of life by using a measure previously shown to predict reduced mortality and functional impairment (18,19). Mean scores adjusted for covariates were higher among respondents with more life skills, with a significant gradient across skills categories (P < 0.001, Fig.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Life skills, wealth, health, and wellbeing in later life

Steptoe

Wardle

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Life skills play a key role in promoting educational and occupational success in early life, but their relevance at older ages is uncertain. Here we measured five life skills-conscientiousness, emotional stability, determination, control, and optimism-in 8,119 men and women aged 52 and older (mean 66.7 y). We show that the number of skills is associated with wealth, income, subjective wellbeing, less depression, low social isolation and loneliness, more close relationships, better self-rated health, fewer chronic diseases and impaired activities of daily living, faster walking speed, and favorable objective biomarkers (concentration of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, vitamin D and C-reactive protein, and less central obesity). Life skills also predicted sustained psychological wellbeing, less loneliness, and a lower incidence of new chronic disease and physical impairment over a 4-y period. These analyses took account of age, sex, parental socioeconomic background, education, and cognitive function. No single life skill was responsible for the associations we observed, nor were they driven by factors such as socioeconomic status or health. Despite the vicissitudes of later life, life skills impact a range of outcomes, and the maintenance of these attributes may benefit the older population.life skills | aging | resources | personality | health L ife skills refer to a set of personal characteristics and capabilities that are thought to increase chances of success and wellbeing in life. They include persistence and determination ("grit"), conscientiousness, self-control, social skills, self-confidence, optimism, and emotional stability (1-3). They are often described as "noncognitive" to distinguish them from cognitive abilities and intellectual capacity. The term "skill" is used instead of trait in part to highlight the notion that these characteristics are malleable rather than fixed characteristics, although many life skills are partly heritable (4, 5). Various life skills have individually been found in childhood and adolescence to predict greater academic success, future employment, prosocial behavior, and health (2, 6, 7). Fostering of life skills in early life is of major interest to policy-makers in education, crime prevention, public order, employment, and health (8).Studies of middle-aged and older people have documented associations between individual characteristics such as conscientiousness, optimism, and emotional stability and a range of social and health outcomes (9-14). However, there have been few investigations of combinations of attributes (15, 16), and little is known about the importance of the accumulation of life skills for economic, social, health, and biological outcomes in later life. We therefore investigated whether the number of skills manifest at older ages is related to a broad range of outcomes after taking childhood circumstances, education, and cognitive ability into account. ResultsWe assessed five core life skills in 2010 in a sample of 8,119 men and women aged 52 to over...

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“…If we want to understand and change health-related behaviors, we need a better understanding of the feedback loop between what we do and how we feel about it. Moreover, it is now firmly established that happiness causes longer lives and better health [9,10].…”

Section: Editorialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing misconceptions in valuing health

Dolan¹

2013

Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research

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Enjoying Life and Living Longer

Cited by 118 publications

References 6 publications

Enjoyment of life and declining physical function at older ages: a longitudinal cohort study

Enjoyment of life and declining physical function at older ages: a longitudinal cohort study

Life skills, wealth, health, and wellbeing in later life

Addressing misconceptions in valuing health

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