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An optimistic self-assessment of health is key to a long life
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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How people assess their health affects their likelihood of survival in the following decades. This is the conclusion reached by scientists from the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Needless to say, a pessimistic assessment goes hand in hand with an increased risk of illness or death. A person who thinks of his or her health as bad is most likely not leading the most healthy lifestyle and is in fact in fragile health or is already ill. However, previous studies, in which participants were observed only for a short time, showed that the correlation remains even when all these factors are taken into account.
In the current study, Zurich specialists have demonstrated that self-assessment of health is also associated with the likelihood of survival or death over a long period of time, exceeding thirty years. Thus, men who assessed their health as “very poor” died 3.3 times more often than their peers who chose the assessment “excellent”. And women who considered their health “very poor” were 1.9 times more likely to die than women who believed that they were in excellent health.
After taking into account education level, marital status, tobacco use, medical history, medication use, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels, the correlation between self-rated health and mortality was somewhat attenuated. The difference in risk of death between the best and worst estimates was 1:2.9 for men and 1:1.5 for women.
The results of the study were published in the journal PLoS ONE.