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The is the fourth in a Series of five papers about ageing
Introduction
People's self-reports of their subjective wellbeing are becoming a focus of intense debate in public policy and economics, and improvement of the wellbeing of the population is emerging as a key societal aspiration. The Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress1 initiated by the French Government and chaired by Joseph Stiglitz argued that present measures of economic performance such as gross domestic product are insufficient as indicators of the progress of society, and that self-reported wellbeing should also be taken into account. In the UK, the Office for National Statistics is driving a national debate about the measurement of wellbeing,2 and in the USA, the Gallup-Healthways Wellbeing Index Poll interviews 1000 adults every day about wellbeing, and similar initiatives are taking place in other countries.3
Subjective wellbeing and health are closely related, and the link could become increasingly important at older ages, if only because the prevalence of chronic illness increases with advancing age. As life expectancy increases and treatments for life-threatening disease become more effective, the issue of maintaining wellbeing at advanced ages is growing in importance. Studies of older people show that assessments of quality of life are affected by the person's state of health,4 but the frequent finding that average self-reported life evaluation in the population increases with age suggests that subjective wellbeing is affected by many factors other than health. These factors include material conditions, social and family relationships, and social roles and activities--factors that also change with age. Research suggests that subjective wellbeing might even be a protective factor for health, reducing the risk of chronic physical illness and promoting longevity. Some researchers5 have argued that subjective wellbeing should be addressed as a measurement of health evaluation and be considered in health-care resource allocation. This Series paper summarises the present evidence linking subjective wellbeing with health in an ageing population.
Major advances in the measurement and interpretation of subjective wellbeing have been made
Three measures--life evaluation, hedonic experience, and meaningfulness--represent different aspects of life experience and have distinct associated factors
In high-income English-speaking countries, life evaluation dips in middle age, and rises in old age, but...