Making your partner happy is the key to living longer, experts say
Your partner's happiness is more influential on your lifespan than your own satisfaction
IF you're after the quiet life, it's a good idea to try to keep your spouse satisfied.
But it's not just your sanity you could be saving - having a happy partner could also help you live longer.
At least, that's the findings of a new study which has been following 4,400 couples for eight years.
Published in the journal, Psychological Science, scientists found that a spouse's life satisfaction was an even better predictor of someone's mortality than their own.
Those who reported having a happy partner at the start of the study were less likely to die over the next eight years than those who had less happy spouses.
"The data show that spousal life satisfaction was associated with mortality, regardless of individuals' socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, or their physical health status," said study author Olga Stavrova, a researcher at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
Happy spouse = healthy you
She said that the findings have the potential for further research into what makes up our "social environment".
We already know that life satisfaction tends to be associated with diet and exercise choices, and this study found that people who had happy, active spouses tended to have an active lifestyle themselves.
Spousal life satisfaction was associated with mortality, regardless of individuals' socioeconomic and demographic characteristics
Olga Stavrova
And it also found the opposite to be true.
"If your partner is depressed and wants to spend the evening eating chips in front of the TV - that's how your evening will probably end up looking, as well."
Happiness plays a role regardless of background
For up to eight years, participants and their spouses reported on life satisfaction and various factors linked to mortality - including how often they worked out and perceived partner support.
They then completed a self-rated heart measure, and provided info on any health conditions, as well as their age, ethnicity, education, household income and partner mortality.
At the end of the study, 16 per cent of the participants had died.
They tended to be older, male, less educated, less wealthy, less physically active and in poorer health.
And they also tended to have reported lower relationship satisfaction and having a partner who reported having lower satisfaction too.
You're more likely to die if your partner dies
The spouses of participants who died were also more likely to pass away within the 8-year observation period than were spouses of participants who were still living.
MORE ON HEALTH
Even after the other socioeconomic factors were considered, the link between happiness and lifespan was still profound.
Happy couples were more likely to be physically active.
"This research might have implications for questions such as what attributes we should pay attention to when selecting our spouse or partner and whether healthy lifestyle recommendations should target couples (or households) rather than individuals," said Olga.
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