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Resilience, or the ability to bounce back from life’s set-backs isn’t always easy—but those who achieve it may be rewarded with a longer life.
By: Marina Zhang
Having the mental grit to cope and adapt to challenges in life is linked to longevity, a recent study found.
This link between the two remained statistically significant even in people with diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and hypertension.
“The relationship persisted even after accounting for smoking and other health-related behaviors,” the authors added.
Researchers in Sweden and China analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study, which is a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults aged 50 and above. More than 10,000 Americans were evaluated on their psychological resilience and their data followed for 12 years.
“Our findings revealed a protective effect of psychological resilience against mortality,” the authors wrote in their study, published Tuesday in BMJ Mental Health.
Psychological Resilience Improves Health
Participants were scored based on a questionnaire that included items related to “perseverance, calmness, a sense of purpose, self-reliance, and the recognition that certain experiences must be faced alone.”
Researchers found that people who scored the highest on psychological resilience scores had a lower chance of all-cause mortality.
Males and females scored very closely in their resilience scores with those who scored the highest having an 84 percent 10-year survival probability. People who scored the lowest had a 61 percent 10-year survival probability.
Furthermore, positive acceptance of change, which is a core aspect of psychological resilience, was associated with lower overall mortality and reduced risk of all-cause and cardiovascular death among older participants.
Women tended to have a lower chance of all-cause mortality, having a higher chance of survival even when compared to men who scored the same in psychological resilience.
Mind Protects the Body
The study shows a protective effect of psychological resilience against mortality, the researchers said.
Prior research has linked psychological resilience with better biological health, though few studies have investigated this link.
“Research has highlighted a potential association between psychological resilience and epigenetic clocks,” the authors wrote. These studies found that people with higher resilience may experience slower aging which can be seen through modifications to DNA.
One aspect of being psychologically resilient is having a sense of purpose, which prior research has shown to be linked to improved longevity.
Research published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity suggested that the relationship between the mind and body is bidirectional—with exercise, dieting, and meditation linked to improved mental resilience—and mentally resilient people tend to partake more in such activities.
Activities and treatment to improve psychological resilience may reduce all-cause mortality, the authors said.
