Keeping your wife happy is the key to a longer life – study

A study has put some meat to the statement ‘Happy wife, happy life’.

A Tilberg University in the Netherlands study, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggests that having a happy spouse not only leads to a longer marriage but also a longer and healthier life.

Study author Olga Stavrova, a researcher at Tilberg University in the Netherlands:

The data shows that spousal life satisfaction was associated with mortality, regardless of individuals’ socio-economic and demographic characteristics, or their physical health status.
The findings underscore the role of individuals’ immediate social environment in their health outcomes. Most importantly, it has the potential to extend our understanding of what makes up individuals’ ‘social environment’ by including the personality and well-being of individuals’ close ones.
People who have a happy, active spouse, for example, are likely to have an active lifestyle themselves.
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.

The study says there is a link between partner satisfaction and mortality. The risk was lowered by as much as 13%.

4,400 couples were studied over eight years in the US. 16% of them died and while age was a factor, it was mainly those who had reported lower partner satisfaction.

So go ahead and make her happy.