Want a longer, happier life? This surprising quality may give it to you.

By Jessica Hall

This skill is linked to a lower risk of death, a study found

Strong mental resilience - or the ability to cope with adversity - in older age may add years to your life.

The ability to cope well with, and adapt to, challenging life circumstances and events in older age is linked to a lower risk of death, according to a new study in the journal BMJ Mental Health.

Qualities such as perseverance, calm, a sense of purpose, self-reliance and the recognition that certain experiences have to be faced alone were examined in the study. Psychological resilience isn't set in stone - it can be cultivated and strengthened over time, researchers said.

Areas such as social support, emotional regulation and problem-solving skills can evolve over a lifetime and help with a person's resilience.

"Psychological resilience is the ability to adapt and bounce back when things don't go as planned. It is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, challenges or trauma. Think of it as mental toughness or the inner strength that helps you handle stress and life's ups and downs," said the study's author, Yiqiang Zhan, who is with the School of Public Health at Sun Yat-Sen University in China.

While other studies have examined the ability to bounce back physically after illness and trauma being associated with slower aging and the risk of death, the researchers wanted to explore if mental resilience might have similar effects.

To study this, the researchers used the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, a long-term nationally representative study of U.S. adults aged 50 and older. That study began in 1992 and includes information on the economic, health, marital and family status of participants who are monitored every two years.

The researchers used HRS data and included a total of 10,569 participants with complete data in the final analysis. Their average age was 66 years old. A total of 59% of participants were women.

Participants were followed up until death or the end of May 2021, whichever came first. During an average tracking period of 12 years, 3,489 people died.

What the researchers found was that there was almost a direct association that emerged between the mental-resilience score and death from any cause: The higher the score, the lower the risk of death, with this association stronger in women than in men.

Survival analysis showed that those in the highest quartile were 53% less likely to die in the next 10 years than those in the lowest, the study found.

This association remained statistically significant after adjusting for marital status, sex, race and weight, but fell to 46% after factoring in ill health such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease, and to 38% after factoring in an unhealthy lifestyle, the study found.

Overall, the risk of death was lower in those with higher mental-resilience scores than it was in those with the lowest scores, once potentially influential factors had been accounted for, the study found.

The evidence suggested that mental resilience is an active process influenced by various factors, including sex, hormones and the genes regulating the body's stress response. This capacity is believed to evolve and vary across different periods of the life cycle, the researchers said.

The researchers acknowledged that the potential influence of genetic and hormonal factors and childhood adversity weren't considered. The analysis also relied on baseline data, overlooking potentially influential changes during the monitoring period.

"While some aspects of resilience may be inherent, many resilience-building skills can be developed and strengthened over time. Activities like mindfulness, maintaining social connections, physical exercise and practicing stress-management techniques all contribute to building resilience," Zhan said.

The study comes as more attention is being paid to mental health, with the U.S. Surgeon General last year declaring loneliness and isolation an epidemic.

Read: Loneliness is as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, says the surgeon general

"Various factors, including but not limited to meaning in life, positive emotions, self-rated health and satisfaction with social support, have been identified as potential influences on psychological resilience," the researchers said in a statement.

"Triggering these positive emotions may enhance the protective effects of psychological resilience and mitigate the negative impact of accumulated adversity on mental health in adults," the researchers said. "The findings underscore the potential effectiveness of interventions aimed at promoting psychological resilience in order to mitigate mortality risks."

-Jessica Hall

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

09-11-24 0533ET

Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.