title: Sustained enjoyment of life and mortality at older ages: analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test whether the number of reports of enjoyment of life over a four year period is quantitatively associated with all cause mortality, and with death from cardiovascular disease and from other causes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Longitudinal observational population study using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a nationally representative sample of older men and women living in England.
  
  
  METHODS
  9365 men and women aged 50 years or older (mean 63, standard deviation 9.3) at recruitment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Time to death, based on mortality between the third phase of data collection (wave 3 in 2006) and March 2013 (up to seven years).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Subjective wellbeing with measures of enjoyment of life were assessed in 2002 (wave 1), 2004 (wave 2), and 2006 (wave 3). 2264 (24%) respondents reported no enjoyment of life on any assessment, with 1833 (20%) reporting high enjoyment on one report of high enjoyment of life, 2063 (22%) on two reports, and 3205 (34%) on all three occasions. 1310 deaths were recorded during follow-up. Mortality was inversely associated with the number of occasions on which participants reported high enjoyment of life. Compared with the no high enjoyment group, the hazard ratio for all cause mortality was 0.83 (95% confidence interval 0.70 to 0.99) for two reports of enjoyment of life, and 0.76 (0.64 to 0.89) for three reports, after adjustment for demographic factors, baseline health, mobility impairment, and depressive symptoms. The same association was observed after deaths occurring within two years of the third enjoyment measure were excluded (0.90 (0.85 to 0.95) for every additional report of enjoyment), and in the complete case analysis (0.90 (0.83 to 0.96)).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is an observational study, so causal conclusions cannot be drawn. Nonetheless, the results add a new dimension to understanding the significance of subjective wellbeing for health outcomes by documenting the importance of sustained wellbeing over time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zaninotto
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wardle
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK a.steptoe@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Steptoe
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012042:Registries; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013222:State Medicine