This report, which was commissioned to study predictors of death
in seniors, stated that “women aged 65 and over who suffered unduly
from psychological or financial stresses were more likely to die within
an eight-year period than those without such problems.” In
reviewing the results, those who monitored the study noted that “an
individual's mental health, specifically psychological distress, can
indeed influence survival.”
The study followed seniors for eight years, from 1994-1995 to
2002-2003. Factors such as age, previous medical problems, and
smoking aside, researchers discovered that those females who openly
reported high levels of stress early in the study were more likely to
pass away during the intervening years of the study than those who
reported little or no stress in their daily lives.
Specifically, approximately 44% of those women who disclosed
difficulties with high psychological distress in 1994-1995 had died
within the eight years of the study compared to only 25% of those who
were stress-free or dealt with minimal stress.
Those women who noted that they didn’t have enough money to cover
everyday necessities or feared that they would lack funds in the future
had an even higher mortality rate.
“Additional calculations revealed that, as expected, high financial
stress was more likely at lower levels of income, and the likelihood of
mortality was also higher at lower levels of income,” reported the
researchers.
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