One thing everyone should know about gratitude
Ying Chen, research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology, on one thing everyone should know about gratitude:
In public health and medicine, most efforts to improve healthy aging have focused on reducing risk factors and illness. But there is increasing interest in identifying positive factors that could protect and improve the health of older people. Gratitude seems to be one of them.
To investigate the association between gratitude and mortality, I worked with colleagues at Harvard Chan School to comb through data from the Nurses’ Health Study. We looked at a six-item gratitude questionnaire completed by over 49,000 older female nurses in the U.S. in 2016. Participants, whose average age was 79, were asked whether they agreed with statements such as “I have so much in life to be thankful for” and “When I look at the world, I don’t see much to be grateful for.” We found that participants who experienced the highest levels of gratitude had a 9% lower risk of death over the following four years than those who scored in the lowest group, even when we accounted for social and demographic factors, physical health, mental health, cognitive function, and religious involvement. This suggests an inverse association. Based on past research, we think that’s because gratitude could encourage healthy habits, promote social integration, and lower the risk of mental illness.
Evidence from randomized controlled trials suggests that we can improve our sense of gratitude. Writing down what we are grateful for helps, and so does expressing gratitude to others, for example by sending a thank-you note to a friend or neighbor. These are things almost everyone can do. You don’t need instructions or training. Start by telling your family what things you are grateful for at dinner time. If you are religious, include that in your prayers. The advantage of writing, however, is that it helps that feeling of gratitude linger on our mind for longer and helps us reflect more deeply on the positive aspects of life.
— As told to Giulia Cambieri
