Optimists live long and prosper

When your glass is half full, you enjoy a better quality of life. A new study released by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York, has found that optimists report a higher level of physical and mental functioning than their pessimistic counterparts. Nearly 500 patients originally assessed in the 1960s with a personality test completed a follow-up self-assessment of their health status 30 years later.

Pessimists reported poorer physical and mental functioning. The results come two years after a Mayo Clinic study of the data found that optimists live longer than pessimists. Researchers said pessimists scored below optimists on quality-of-life assessments, and also scored lower than the national average on five of the eight scales that were measured. Those are physical functioning; role limitations, physical; bodily pain; general health perception; vitality; social functioning; role limitations, emotional; and mental health.

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