Optimism ‘reduces stroke risk’

Being optimistic can cut your risk of stroke, new research has found.

The news is based on a large US study which assessed various aspects of health, lifestyle and outlook in more than 6,000 elderly participants. Researchers then followed them for a two-year period to see how optimism related to their chances of experiencing their first stroke.

During the follow-up period, 88 strokes occurred, with the researchers finding a higher optimism score was associated with the lower risk of stroke. Each one-point increase in optimism score (possible range of three to 18) was associated with about a 10% decrease in the odds of experiencing a stroke.

In particular, the researchers were interested to see whether the association between stroke and optimism was due to an ‘absence of negative psychological factors’, ie. that the observed reduced risk seen in optimistic people, rather than being due to optimism as a trait in its own right, might reflect a lack of negative psychological traits.

Optimism and pessimism were assessed separately, using a modified version of a test called the 6-item Life Orientation, which assessed three items on each disposition, and participants were asked to use a six-point scale to rate their agreement with statements such as “in uncertain times, I usually expect the best”.

The researchers then tested whether these individual negative and psychological factors were independently associated with the risk of stroke, and found that the odds of stroke were significantly increased if people displayed anxiety, depression, low mood and neuroticism, but not so with cynical hostility and pessimism.

However, experts said some caution should be applied when considering these results, particularly as the follow-up period was short as those who went on to develop stroke were likely to have had cardiovascular disease developing at or before the time their optimism was assessed.

Nevertheless, the study’s findings are consistent with previous research and the  commonly held theory that a positive outlook can have beneficial effects on health and wellbeing.

Optimism has often been linked to positive health outcomes, particularly in cardiovascular disease, but researchers say that no study has investigated this theory regarding stroke, particularly in the elderly, until now.