{"id":108829,"date":"2016-08-26T17:28:51","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T17:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/whos-really-happier-young-people-or-older-people\/"},"modified":"2016-08-26T17:28:51","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T17:28:51","slug":"whos-really-happier-young-people-or-older-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/whos-really-happier-young-people-or-older-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s really happier: Young people or older people?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Older adults may not be as physically healthy or mentally sharp as younger and middle-age adults, but they have higher psychological well-being than these other age groups, according to a new survey of people living in San Diego County, California.<\/p>\n

In the study, the researchers evaluated three key factors in adults across their life spans: their physical health, cognitive health and mental health. They found that\u00a0older people had better mental health\u00a0than younger people.<\/p>\n

The researchers also found that young adults in their 20s and 30s had the lowest scores on measures of psychological well-being of all of the age groups in the study, which included people ages 21 to 99, according to the findings, published in the August issue of The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the study showed that people experience declines in both their physical health and their thinking skills as they age, aging was also linked with better mental health, greater happiness, more satisfaction with life and an\u00a0improved sense of well-being, said Dr. Dilip Jeste, the study’s lead author and director of the Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the University of California, San Diego.<\/p>\n

In addition, older age was associated with less anxiety, lower stress and a decreased risk of depression, he said.<\/p>\n

Older age is often thought of as\u00a0a period of gloom and doom, a time of decline in physical health, happiness and well-being, Jeste said. Yet the new results point out a paradox of aging, he suggested.<\/p>\n

“Contrary to the stereotype of old and grumpy, the study found older people to be happy and contented,” Jeste told Live Science.<\/p>\n

In the study, the researchers looked at more than 1,500 men and women ages 21 to 99 who lived in San Diego County, California. All of the study participants were contacted by telephone (landlines), and were given a test to evaluate their cognitive skills during the call.<\/p>\n

Moreover, all participants were mailed a written survey so that the researchers could gather information about their physical health and psychological well-being. To gauge psychological well-being, adults rated their level of happiness, depression, stress, anxiety and life satisfaction.<\/p>\n

Older and wiser<\/b><\/h2>\n

Previous studies that examined people’s well-being across the life span have produced mixed results, Jeste said. Some researchers have reported a U-shaped curve, meaning that they have found that people have high levels of well-being in their 20s and 30s, followed by a decline in it through middle age (40s and 50s) and then an increase during their 60s and 70s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this new study, instead of producing a U-shaped curve, the data showed a steady improvement in well-being across the decades, Jeste said. This improvement was seen in overall measures of mental health from the 20s through very old age, he said.<\/p>\n

The findings show that “aging can be \u2014 and often is \u2014 a period of contentment,\u00a0satisfaction and happiness,” Jeste told Live Science.<\/p>\n

\n

More on this…<\/h2>\n