People with greater mental resilience may live longer, study finds

People with high levels of mental resilience may live much longer lives, according to the authors of new research that found the link to be especially prevalent in women.

The study, published in BMJ Mental Health, which has been peer reviewed and involved researchers from Sun Yat-sen University in China, found that there was a link between people who had high levels of mental resilience having a lower risk of death from all causes.

The researchers looked at data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a long-term nationally representative study of adults in the US who are at least 50. The study first began in 1992 and records information on economic, health, marital and family status of participants, which is monitored every two years.

The study then looked at HRS data from 10,569 participants, from 2006 to 2008, which is the period where questions on mental resilience were collected for the first time. The average age of this subsection was 66, with 59% of them being women.

These participants were followed until May 2021 or until they had died, and during the tracking period of 12 years, 3,489 participants died.

The researchers found a link between the mental resilience of the participants and their death from any cause, and found that those who had a higher mental resilience score had a lower risk of death.

Women had a stronger association between a high mental resilience score and a lower risk of death than men, the study also found. Resilience scores were also divided into quartiles and linked to 10-year survival probability scores. The study found that the highest quartile were 53% less likely to die in the next 10 years, compared with the lowest.

However, the researchers said that the study was observational and a causal link between mental resilience and lower causes of death should not be inferred. They added that variables such as genetic factors and childhood adversity were not included in the study.

Mental resilience was measured using a scale that included looking at the qualities of perseverance, calmness, a sense of purpose, self-reliance and the recognition that certain experiences have to be faced alone.

The researchers said: “Various factors, including but not limited to meaning in life, positive emotions, self-rated health and satisfaction with social support, have been identified as potential influences on psychological resilience.

“Triggering these positive emotions may enhance the protective effects of psychological resilience and mitigate the negative impact of accumulated adversity on mental health in adults.”

They added: “The findings underscore the potential effectiveness of interventions aimed at promoting psychological resilience in order to mitigate mortality risks.”

Caroline Abrahams, the charity director of Age UK, said: “The authors of this study are careful not to conclude that there are causal links between mental wellbeing, resilience and the chance of death, but it’s notable that so many studies looking at what helps us in later life comment positively about a list of similar factors.

“Staying connected, retaining a sense of purpose and doing things you enjoy all seem to help, and of course they make life more fulfilling too. Some older people are more advantaged than others in these respects but even small changes may help. Above all, we have licence to do things that make us happy as we age, knowing it’s good for us too.”

Age UK said that steps to look after a person’s emotional wellbeing as they get older includes eating healthily, taking part in a new activity or hobby every day, spending time with friends and family, and taking part in new activities.