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Following one million middleaged women in Britain for 10 years, a study finds that the widely held view that happiness enhances health and longevity is unfounded.
The results come from the socalled Million Women Study, which took on women aged 50 to 69 from 1996 to 2001, and tracked them with questionnaires and official records of deaths and hospital admissions. The questionnaires asked how often the women felt happy, in control, relaxed and stressed, and also instructed them to rate their health and list ailments like high blood pressure, diabetes, depression or anxiety.
When the answers were analyzed statistically, unhappiness and stress were not associated with an increased risk of death. It is not clear whether the conclusion applies to men.
Professor Peto said particularly important data came from 500，000 women who reported that they were in good health, with no history of heart disease, cancer or stroke. A minority of these healthy women said they were stressed or unhappy, he said, but over the next decade they were no more likely to die than the women who were generally happy.
“This finding refutes (驳斥) the large effects of unhappiness and stress on deathrate that others have claimed，”Dr. Peto said. Unhappiness itself may not affect health directly, but it can do harm in other ways, by driving people to suicide, alcoholism or other dangerous behaviors, he warned.
This type of study, in which people involved depend on their selfassessment, is not considered as reliable as a designed experiment where people involved are picked at random and assigned to a treatment or control group. But the huge number of people in this study gives it power. Still, some observers noted that measuring emotions is more nuanced (细微的) and complex than simply declaring happiness or unhappiness.
“I would have liked to see more discussion of how people translate these complicated feelings into a selfreport of happiness.”said Baruch Fischhoff, a psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University.
The results of earlier studies have been mixed, with some finding that unhappiness causes illness and others showing no link, Dr. Fischhoff said.“It looks to me like people have collected a lot of data without finding a clear signal，”he said. However, an editorial accompanying the study in The Lancet noted that it had the largest population so far in happiness studies and praised its statistical methods.
Professor Peto said he doubted whether the new study would change many minds because beliefs about the risks of unhappiness are so rooted.“People are still going to believe that stress causes heart attacks，”he said.
Topic |
Happiness Doesnˈt (71)________ Bring Good Health |
(72)________ of the research |
One million women aged 50 to 69 |
(73)________ of the research |
·Track the women with questionnaires. |
·Keep official records of deaths and hospital admission. |
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·Make statistical (74)________ of the answers. |
|
Results of the research |
·It lacks basis that unhappy people (75)________ to suffer mortality more easily. |
·Unhappiness may (76)________ for some dangerous behavior. |
|
·Whether the conclusion applies to men hasnˈt been (77)________ . |
|
(78)________ of the research |
·It just depends on how people involved (79)________ themselves. |
·Measuring emotion is more nuanced and complex. |
|
·The results of earlier studies have been mixed. |
|
Significance of the research |
·The largest population were involved. |
·Statistical methods were used. |
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Professor Petoˈs concern |
The study can (80)________ change peopleˈs minds as the beliefs about the disadvantages of unhappiness are so anchored. |