14 DAY TRIAL // A good psychological health tends to keep people on the right track, and make them want to have a healthy lifestyle and get rid of their bad habits, suggests a new study carried out by Margie E. Lachman PhD and Stefan Agrigoroaei PhD of the Brandeis Psychology Department.
When assessing health, researchers focus in generally on the dangers of the traditional negative physical risk factors on health like smoking, drinking and being overweight, and far less on the harder-to-quantify positive influences of good psychological and social supports.
This is why Lachman – Director of the Lifespan Developmental Psychological Laboratory in the Department of Psychology, and Agrigoroaei, a postdoctoral researcher at the lab, focused on the psychological roots of health.
They based their research on data found in The Midlife in the US (MIDUS) study, which involved 3,626 adults aged 32 to 84 years, who were assessed over two periods of time (10 years apart).
After assessing all data, they concluded that with the appropriate protective elements in place, people could stay in good health for ten extra years, than they currently do.
The scientists say that there are specific psychological, social and physical protective factors that are connected to a better health, later in life.
Physical exercise, social support and control beliefs are just some of the factors that can predict important changes in functional health, considered individually or together.
“Control beliefs” is actually a person's sense of how much they can influence important life outcomes, and people who have a greater sense of control are more likely to start healthy activities like working out, getting exercise and eating healthier foods.
Reducing every day stress and adopting a positive lifestyle can be influenced by supportive social relationships, the authors of the study say.
These results are very encouraging for future interventions on promoting functional health say the researchers, as well as for decreasing public health costs for disabilities later in life.
Their research is presented in an article entitled "Promoting Functional Health in Midlife and Old Age: Long-Term Protective Effects of Control Beliefs, Social Support, and Physical Exercise," published in PlosOne.