Psychology Commons^™

Variability Modifies Life Satisfaction's Association With Mortality Risk In Older Adults, Julia K. Boehm, Ashley Winning, Suzanne Segerstrom, Laura D. Kubzansky

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Greater life satisfaction is associated with greater longevity, but its variability across time has not been examined relative to longevity. We investigated whether mean life satisfaction across time, variability in life satisfaction across time, and their interaction were associated with mortality over 9 years of follow-up. Participants were 4,458 Australians initially at least 50 years old. During the follow-up, 546 people died. After we adjusted for age, greater mean life satisfaction was associated with a reduction in mortality risk, and greater variability in life satisfaction was associated with an increase in mortality risk. These findings were qualified by a significant …

Short- And Long-Term Associations Between Widowhood And Mortality In The United States: Longitudinal Analyses, J. Robin Moon, M. Maria Glamour, Anusha M. Vable, Sze Yan Liu, S.V. Subramanian

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Background

Past research shows that spousal death results in elevated mortality risk for the surviving spouse. However, most prior studies have inadequately controlled for socioeconomic status (SES), and it is unclear whether this ‘widowhood effect’ persists over time.

Methods

Health and Retirement Study participants aged 50+ years and married in 1998 (n = 12 316) were followed through 2008 for widowhood status and mortality (2912 deaths). Discrete-time survival analysis was used to compare mortality for the widowed versus the married.

Results

Odds of mortality during the first 3 months post-widowhood were significantly higher than in the continuously married (odds ratio …

Golfing-Unto-Death, Rodger E. Broome Phd

Rodger E. Broome

Drawing from Heidegger’s (2008) Being and Time, the game of golf is analogous to our Being-unto-death. Each day that we awake is another swing at the ball of life. How well we hit the ball determines the position from which subsequent shots can be made, or our “lie.” A poorly made shot tends to send the ball flying into an obstacle like a sand trap, rough turf, or grove of trees that are along each fairway. We begin each day from the Tee, which is a place where we can set up our ball on a tee so that we …