Study Ties Psychological Resilience to Lower Mortality

Psychological resilience – how we describe the ability to successfully manage life’s changes – is garnering more attention as a critical component in sustaining one’s mental and physical well-being. And while some research has trickled out over the years that support psychological resilience to improved health-related outcomes, scant research has explored its relationship with mortality, especially in older adults.

Now, a consortium of Chinese and Swedish researchers – who sought to fill this gap – launched an investigation into the link between psychological resilience and all-cause mortality among U.S. senior citizens. The researchers wanted to figure out whether higher levels of psychological resilience could mitigate the risk of all-cause mortality in a large national cohort of U.S. adults over 50. They theorized that those with higher resilience scores would be at a lower risk of death. And that’s even after adjusting for multiple confounding factors such as demographics, health status, and lifestyle behaviors.

Methodology

The researchers pulled data from the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative longitudinal survey of older Americans. The study covered more than 10,000 participants who University researchers assessed for psychological resilience between 2006 and 2008.

The team gauged psychological resilience by using a Simplified Resilience Score (SRS), derived from 12 items in the Leave-Behind Questionnaire (LBQ) that reflect key psychosocial domains, such as perseverance, calmness, and a sense of purpose.

Researchers tracked the participants for mortality outcomes up to May 2021. The team noted 3,489 deaths throughout the follow-up. They used Cox proportional hazards models to judge the tie between resilience and mortality while adjusting for potential confounders such as age, sex, race, body mass index (BMI), chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes, heart disease, cancer), smoking, and physical activity.

Findings

The study – which appears in the open-access journal BMJ Mental Health – uncovered a robust, statistically significant relationship between higher psychological resilience and lower all-cause mortality.

Pointedly, the study illustrated that for each standard deviation increase in resilience, there appeared to be a 25 percent reduction in the death risk after adjusting for age, gender, race, and BMI. This protective mantle endured even after the authors factored in chronic diseases and health behaviors.

A virtually linear relationship emerged after the researchers dug deeper, suggesting the risk of death fell as resilience increased. The study also showed that women with higher resilience scores had a lower mortality risk than men with similar resilience levels, suggesting gender might play a bigger part in this relationship than researchers thought.

Nurturing Psychological Resilience

The authors wrapped up by insisting that psychological resilience is, in fact, a notable safeguard against all-cause mortality in older adults. These results strongly suggest that promoting resilience through targeted interventions could work as a productive strategy for bolstering longevity and well-being in an aging U.S. population.

The results have implications for local practitioners as well as public policymakers, who could leverage this data to craft interventions such as stress management programs, cognitive-behavioral therapy regimes, and social support initiatives.

As the population continues to age, getting a handle on how we can best spark – and encourage – psychological resilience could help promote healthy aging and longer life expectancies.

Further Reading

Increased Mortality Among Patients Admitted With Major Psychiatric Disorders

Can You Teach Resilience?

Understanding Resilience: No Place to Rest on Our Laurels