"불행하다고 일찍 죽는 것 아니다" Happiness and unhappiness have no direct effect on mortality

영국 옥스퍼드대학교 연구팀

"불행 고통 등의 감정, 

건강이나 사망률에 전혀 영향 주지 못해"

병에 걸리면 행복감 없어져

source ox.ac.uk

edited by kcontents 

케이콘텐츠 편집

대부분의 사람들은 행복을 훌륭한 인생의 범주에 포함시키고 불행은 나쁜 것으로 생각한다.  하지만 이런 불행이나 고통 등의 감정이 건강이나 사망률에는 전혀 영향을 주지 못한다는 연구결과가 나왔다. 이전의 연구에서는 행복은 심혈관 질환과 장애 정도를 포함해 전반적인 건강 상태와 관련이 있는 것으로 나타났으며 최근의 연구에서도 우울증이 있는 두경부암 환자는 최악의 결과를 보이는 것으로 분석됐다. 하지만 영국 옥스퍼드대학교 연구팀은 “100여만 명의 영국 여성들을 대상으로 한 연구결과, 스트레스나 고통 같은 것들이 좋지 못한 건강 상태로 이어지지 않는 것으로 나타났다”고 밝혔다. 이번 연구의 저자인 호주 뉴사우스웨일스 대학교의 베티 류 박사는 “질병은 걸린 사람을 불행하게 만들지만 불행 그 자체가 질병에 걸리게 하는 것은 아니라”며 “불행과 스트레스는 사망률에 직접적인 영향을 주지 않는다는 사실을 알아냈다”고 말했다. 옥스퍼드대학교 연구팀은 ‘100만 명 여성 연구’에 참여한 평균 나이 59세의 영국 여성 70여만 명의 데이터를 분석했다. 이 여성들은 1996년~2001년에 연구에 참여했으며 연구팀은 이후 10년 동안 인터뷰 등을 통해 추적 조사를 실시했다. 조사 대상자중 39%가 대부분의 시간에서 행복하다고 답했고 44%는 대체적으로 행복하다고 응답했다. 17%는 불행하다고 답했다. 10년의 연구기간 동안 4%가 사망했다. 연구결과 조사 대상자들이 스스로 보고한 허약한 건강 상태는 불행과 연관성이 있는 것으로 나타난 반면, 고혈압이나 당뇨병, 천식, 관절염, 우울증 등과 흡연, 체질량지수 등 생활 요인 등의 원인을 고려했을 때도 불행은 사망률과 전혀 관련성이 없는 것으로 나타났다. 이번 연구결과는 의학 저널 ‘란셋(Lancet)’에 실렸으며 UPI통신 등이 보도했다. 코메디닷컴 권순일 기자 (kstt77@kormedi.com)

Happiness and unhappiness have no direct effect on mortality

A study of a million UK women, published today in The Lancet, has shown that happiness itself has no direct effect on mortality, and that the widespread but mistaken belief that unhappiness and stress directly cause ill health came from studies that had simply confused cause and effect. 

Life-threatening poor health can cause unhappiness, and for this reason unhappiness is associated with increased mortality. In addition, smokers tend to be unhappier than non-smokers. However, after taking account of previous ill health, smoking, and other lifestyle and socio-economic factors, the investigators found that unhappiness itself was no longer associated with increased mortality.

The lead author, Dr Bette Liu, now at the University of New South Wales, Australia said: 'Illness makes you unhappy, but unhappiness doesn't make you ill. We found no direct effect of unhappiness or stress on mortality, even in a ten-year study of a million women.'

The investigation was conducted within the UK Million Women Study. Three years after joining the study, women were sent a questionnaire asking them to self-rate their health, happiness, stress, feelings of control, and whether they felt relaxed. Five out of six of the women said they were generally happy, but one in six said they were generally unhappy.

As in other studies, unhappiness was associated with deprivation, smoking, lack of exercise, and not living with a partner. The strongest associations, however, were that the women who were already in poor health tended to say that they were unhappy, stressed, not in control, and not relaxed.

The main analyses included 700 000 women, average age 59 years, and over the next 10 years these women were followed by electronic record linkage for mortality, during which time 30 000 of the women died.

After allowing for any differences already present in health and lifestyle, the overall death rate among those who were unhappy was the same as the death rate among those who were generally happy. The study is so large that it rules out unhappiness being a direct cause of any material increase in overall mortality, in women.

This was true for overall mortality, for cancer mortality, and for heart disease mortality, and it was true for stress as well as for unhappiness.

Co-author Professor Sir Richard Peto, of the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK said: 'Many still believe that stress or unhappiness can directly cause disease, but they are simply confusing cause and effect. Of course people who are ill tend to be unhappier than those who are well, but the UK Million Women Study shows that happiness and unhappiness do not themselves have any direct effect on death rates.'

Previous reports of reduced mortality being associated with happiness, with being in control, with being relaxed, or with related measures of wellbeing had not allowed properly for the strong effect of ill health on unhappiness and on stress.

In a linked Comment, Dr Philipe de Souto Barreto and Professor Yves Rolland, Institute of Ageing, University Hospital of Toulouse, France say that the study provides extremely valuable and robust information about happiness, health, and mortality. Dr de Souto Barreto and Professor Rolland also call for randomised trials to investigate the issue further: 'Such studies should be powered to allow comparisons to be made across age ranges and between men and women. Cross-cultural studies could also shed light on the generalisability of interventions to promote happiness.'

The paper, Does happiness itself directly affect mortality? The prospective UK Million Women Study, is published in the Lancet (doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01087-9)

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-12-08-happiness-and-unhappiness-have-no-direct-effect-mortality

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