To flourish or not: positive mental health and all-cause mortality

Am J Public Health. 2012 Nov;102(11):2164-72. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.300918. Epub 2012 Sep 20.

Abstract

Objectives: We investigated whether positive mental health predicts all-cause mortality.

Methods: Data were from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study (n = 3032), which at baseline in 1995 measured positive mental health (flourishing and not) and past-year mental illness (major depressive episode, panic attacks, and generalized anxiety disorders), and linked respondents with National Death Index records in a 10-year follow-up ending in 2005. Covariates were age, gender, race, education, any past-year mental illness, smoking, physical inactivity, physical diseases, and physical disease risk factors.

Results: A total of 6.3% of participants died during the study period. The final and fully adjusted odds ratio of mortality was 1.62 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00, 2.62; P = .05) for adults who were not flourishing, relative to participants with flourishing mental health. Age, gender, race, education, smoking, physical inactivity, cardiovascular disease, and HIV/AIDS were significant predictors of death during the study period.

Conclusions: The absence of positive mental health increased the probability of all-cause mortality for men and women at all ages after adjustment for known causes of death.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / mortality
  • Chi-Square Distribution
  • Educational Status
  • Female
  • HIV Infections / mortality
  • Humans
  • Logistic Models
  • Male
  • Mental Disorders / mortality*
  • Mental Health / statistics & numerical data*
  • Middle Aged
  • Mortality*
  • Racial Groups / statistics & numerical data
  • Sedentary Behavior
  • Sex Factors
  • Smoking / mortality
  • United States / epidemiology