Positive emotions in early life and longevity: findings from the nun study.
Handwritten autobiographies from 180 Catholic nuns, composed when participants were a mean age of 22 years, were scored for emotional content and related to survival during ages 75 to 95. A strong inverse association was found between positive emotional content in these writings and risk of mortality in late life (p < .001). As the quartile ranking of positive emotion in early life increased, there was a stepwise decrease in risk of mortality resulting in a 2.5-fold difference between the lowest and highest quartiles. Positive emotional content in early-life autobiographies was strongly associated with longevity 6 decades later. Underlying mechanisms of balanced emotional states are discussed.
Danner
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Department of Preventive Medicine and Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40536-0230, USA. dddann00@uky.edu
Snowdon
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DA
Friesen
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WV
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001325:Autobiographies as Topic; D015142:Baltimore / Q000453:epidemiology; D002410:Catholicism; D002977:Clergy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D014922:Wisconsin / Q000453:epidemiology