Folks Who Cope, Adapt Do Well in Old Age: Study

• September 4, 2024
• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

People who can cope with challenges as they grow older are more likely to live longer, a new study shows.

Seniors with higher levels of mental resilience are 53% less likely to die within the next 10 years than those with the lowest levels, researchers found.

Even with chronic health problems or an unhealthy lifestyle, people with high mental resilience remained 46% and 38% less likely to die within 10 years than those with the least fortitude.

“Resilience is often discussed in terms of protective factors, allowing adults in normal environments to maintain relative stability even in the face of highly disruptive events,” wrote the research team led by Dr. Yiqiang Zhan, an associate professor of epidemiology with the Sun Yat-Sen University School of Public Health in China.

“This study is unique in establishing a statistically significant association between psychological resilience and all-cause mortality in the older and retired population, even after accounting for confounding factors,” the researchers concluded in a university news release.

Good coping skills can help offset long-term chronic illnesses or disabilities in older age, they added.

However, it hasn’t been clear whether the ability to cope and adapt is associated with slower aging or a lower risk of death, researchers said.

To examine this, they analyzed data from more than 10,500 participants in a U.S. health and retirement study involving people 50 and older.

The participants’ mental resilience was determined using scales that measured qualities like perseverance, calmness, sense of purpose and self-reliance, researchers said.

Initial results showed that the higher a person’s mental resilience, the lower their risk of death. The association was stronger in women than in men.

Looking more closely, researchers divided the participants into four groups based on their level of mental resilience.

The people with the top levels of mental resilience had an overall 84% chance of surviving the next 10 years, followed by 79% and 72% for the middle two groups. Those with the lowest levels of resilience had a 61% chance of survival, results show.

The new study was published Sept. 3 in the journal BMJ Mental Health.

The findings indicate that having a purpose and remaining optimistic in the face of uncertainty can help a person persevere in circumstances that might otherwise lower life expectancy, researchers concluded.

“The findings underscore the potential effectiveness of interventions aimed at promoting psychological resilience in order to mitigate mortality risks,” researchers wrote in a journal news release.

More information

The Mayo Clinic has more about building mental resilience.

SOURCE: BMJ, news release, Sept. 3, 2024

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