Satisfaction with life and SF-36 vitality predict risk of ischemic heart disease: a prospective cohort study

The main objective of the current study was to investigate associations between two aspects of well-being - satisfaction with life and vitality - and incidence of and mortality from ischemic heart disease. Study design. The Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank (CAMB) was conducted from 2009 to 2011 and was used as baseline data with 6750 individuals having complete information on The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) and 6652 individuals with complete information on the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) vitality scale. Incidence of and mortality from ischemic heart disease were assessed using Danish register data and a total of 349 CAMB individuals were registered with either a diagnosis (n = 337) or had died (n = 12) from ischemic heart disease before the end of follow-up (31 December 2017). The hazard ratios of ischemic heart disease according to satisfaction with life and vitality scores were investigated using Cox proportional hazard regression adjusted for potential covariates. Results. A one standard deviation increase on the SWLS was associated with an 18% reduced risk of ischemic heart disease while a one standard deviation increase on the SF-36 vitality scale was associated with a 24% reduced risk of ischemic heart disease after adjustment for baseline socio-demographic factors. These associations remained when separately adjusting for lifestyle, objective health, and social factors, but became non-significant when adjusting for self-reported health. Conclusion. Our study indicates that both psychological and health-related components of wellbeing are important in relation to ischemic heart disease.