title: The impact of emotional well-being on long-term recovery and survival in physical illness: a meta-analysis.
abstract: This meta-analysis synthesized studies on emotional well-being as predictor of the prognosis of physical illness, while in addition evaluating the impact of putative moderators, namely constructs of well-being, health-related outcome, year of publication, follow-up time and methodological quality of the included studies. The search in reference lists and electronic databases (Medline and PsycInfo) identified 17 eligible studies examining the impact of general well-being, positive affect and life satisfaction on recovery and survival in physically ill patients. Meta-analytically combining these studies revealed a Likelihood Ratio of 1.14, indicating a small but significant effect. Higher levels of emotional well-being are beneficial for recovery and survival in physically ill patients. The findings show that emotional well-being predicts long-term prognosis of physical illness. This suggests that enhancement of emotional well-being may improve the prognosis of physical illness, which should be investigated by future research.
authors.affiliation: Psychology, Health and Technology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands. s.m.a.lamers@utwente.nl
authors.forename: Sanne M A
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Lamers
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bolier
authors.forename: Gerben J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Westerhof
authors.forename: Filip
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Smit
authors.forename: Ernst T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Bohlmeijer
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D004194:Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011379:Prognosis; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*