New research highlights the important role that mental health plays in determining healthy aging, regardless of socioeconomic status. After analysing genetic data from over 2.3 million Europeans, researchers found that good mental health is linked to healthier aging, including greater resilience, improved self-rated health and longer lifespan. Interestingly, they also identified certain lifestyle choices, such as being active, not smoking and eating cheese and fruit, as beneficial for mental health and healthy aging.
The results of the study are: Nature Human behavior.
Human life expectancy has increased significantly in recent decades, bringing challenges to individuals and society, including increased healthcare needs and economic burdens. While physical health and longevity are often the focus of ageing research, the role of mental health has received less attention. This study aimed to explore the causal relationship between mental health and healthy ageing, and whether this relationship is independent of socioeconomic status.
The study investigated the causal relationship between mental health and healthy aging using a method called Mendelian randomization, which uses genetic data to determine whether an observed association between two traits is causal or simply correlational. By using genetic variants as a surrogate for exposure, Mendelian randomization helps mitigate biases commonly found in observational studies, such as confounding and reverse causation.
The researchers analyzed data from eight genetic datasets covering more than 2.3 million individuals of European descent. These datasets contained information on five key psychological well-being traits: overall happiness, life satisfaction, positive emotions, neuroticism, and depression. In addition to psychological well-being, the study also considered three socioeconomic indicators: income, education, and occupation.
The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the researchers assessed the causal relationships between mental health traits and various ageing phenotypes, including resilience, self-rated health, healthspan, parental longevity, and longevity. They also examined whether these relationships were independent of socioeconomic status.
In the second phase, we explored potential mediating factors that may influence the relationship between mental health and healthy ageing. These factors included lifestyle choices (e.g., diet, physical activity, smoking), behaviors (e.g., medication use, cognitive ability), physical functioning (e.g., body mass index, cholesterol levels), and diseases (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes).
The study found a strong causal relationship between improved mental health and healthier aging outcomes: specifically, individuals with higher mental health had significantly higher Aging-Associated Genetic Influence Phenotype (aging-GIP) scores, greater resilience, improved self-rated health, longer health span, and longer parental life span.
For example, the study found that genetically determined increases in overall well-being were associated with significant increases in aging, i.e., GIP (1.21 standard deviations), resilience (1.11 standard deviations), self-rated health (0.84 points), healthspan (odds ratio 1.35), and parental longevity (3.35 years), but no significant association was found between overall well-being and longevity (odds ratio 1.56).
Importantly, the study demonstrated that the relationship between mental health and healthy aging persisted regardless of socioeconomic status. Higher income, education, and occupational attainment were associated with better mental health, but the positive impact of mental health on aging outcomes remained significant even after controlling for these socioeconomic factors. This suggests that mental health has a powerful and independent influence on healthy aging.
The researchers also identified several lifestyle factors that contribute to mental health and therefore healthy aging. Among them, being physically active and avoiding smoking were associated with improved mental health and healthier aging outcomes. Other influential factors included cognitive ability, age at smoking initiation, and use of certain medications, which also mediated the relationship between mental health and aging. Additionally, dietary habits such as consuming more cheese and fruit were also found to be beneficial.
Interestingly, this is not the first study to find a link between cheese consumption and mental health. Nutrients Discover correlations Regular cheese consumption and cognitive health In the elderly population, researchers analysing data from 1,516 participants aged 65 and over found that those who regularly ate cheese tended to have better cognitive function scores.
Although this new study provides compelling evidence of a causal relationship between mental health and healthy aging, it also has some limitations. For example, the study focused on individuals of European descent, so the findings may not be generalizable to other populations. Future research should explore whether these relationships hold true across different ethnic groups.
Nevertheless, the results suggest that strategies to boost mental health could significantly improve ageing outcomes.
“Our findings highlight the need to prioritize mental health in health policies to promote healthy ageing and suggest that interventions to address disparities in healthy ageing associated with suboptimal mental health could target promoting healthy lifestyles such as limiting television viewing time and avoiding smoking, monitoring performance and physical functioning, such as improving cognitive function and controlling obesity, and preventing common chronic diseases,” the researchers concluded.
the study, “Evidence for a causal effect of mental health on healthy aging through Mendelian randomizationThe authors are Chao-Jie Ye, Dong Liu, Ming-Ling Chen, Li-Jie Kong, Chun Dou, Yi-Ying Wang, Min Xu, Yu Xu, Mian Li, Zhi-Yun Zhao, Rui-Zhi Zheng, Jie Zheng, Jie-Li Lu, Yu-Hong Chen, Guang Ning, Wei-Qing Wang, Yu-Fang Bi.
