Can Gratitude Actually Help You Live Longer?

Harvard researchers drew on the Nurses' Health Study to follow 49,275 older women, average age 79, who had completed a validated six-item gratitude questionnaire, then tracked deaths over the following three years. Women in the highest third for gratitude had roughly a 9 percent lower risk of dying from any cause than those in the lowest third, with the clearest protection against death from heart disease. The association held after the researchers accounted for physical health, social participation, religious involvement, optimism and other aspects of wellbeing. This is an observational study of mostly white, higher-income nurses, so it shows a link and does not prove cause, and whether the same holds for men or younger or less advantaged women remains open. It offers early evidence that a practice as ordinary as noticing what you are thankful for may sit alongside the more familiar pillars of a longer life.