ArticleAmerican journal of public health2012
To flourish or not: positive mental health and all-cause mortality.
Article in American journal of public health, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 113 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
113 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Blue health among children, adolescents, and youth psychological well-being: a systematic review of swimming and aquatic therapy for mental health.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Living alone and positive mental health: a systematic review.Systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- The Impact of Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts on Substance Use, Mental Health, and Recidivism: Results from a Multisite Experimental Evaluation.The journal of behavioral health services & research · 2022Trial
- Trajectories of change in well-being during cognitive behavioral therapies for anxiety disorders: Quantifying the impact and covariation with improvements in anxiety.Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.) · 2020Trial
- Trial
- A Mobile Health Intervention for Mental Health Promotion Among University Students: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2020Trial
- Examining the Differential Effects of a Universal SEL Curriculum on Student Functioning Through the Dual Continua Model of Mental Health.The journal of primary prevention · 2019Trial
- Towards sustainable mental health promotion: trial-based health-economic evaluation of a positive psychology intervention versus usual care.BMC psychiatry · 2018Trial
- Efficacy of the Fun For Wellness Online Intervention to Promote Multidimensional Well-Being: a Randomized Controlled Trial.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2017Trial
- Mental Health and Subjective Vitality in Arabic-Speaking North Africa: A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF).The Psychiatric quarterly · 2026Article
- National Estimates of Human Flourishing and Associated Acts of Charity.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Enhancing health outcomes through genetic-based personalized nutrition: investigating the effects of dietary behavior change.BMC nutrition · 2026Article
- Narrative Self-Transcendence: Decreased Regret and Increased Acceptance Over Late Midlife.Journal of personality · 2026Article
- The dual effects of social capital on mental health: a study of structural and cognitive dimensions among the floating older adults in China.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Flourishing older Canadians: What characteristics are associated with complete mental health?PloS one · 2026Article
- Bridging policy and practice: exploring mental health assets in varsity athletes and non-athletes in Canada.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- Cumulative associations between health behaviours, mental well-being, and health over 30 years.Annals of medicine · 2025Article
- Validating a positive mental health measure with Portuguese adolescents and exploring associations with mental health perceived competencies.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Psychological resources and illness recovery in later life: independent associations of positive mental health and attitudes to aging.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Community Belonging and Fourishing in Youth: Examining the Mediating Role of Coping Skills in Youth Across Ethnoracial Backgrounds.Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry = Journal de l'Academie canadienne de psychiatrie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent · 2025Article
53 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesWe investigated whether positive mental health predicts all-cause mortality.
methodsData were from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study (n = 3032), which at baseline in 1995 measured positive mental health (flourishing and not) and past-year mental illness (major depressive episode, panic attacks, and generalized anxiety disorders), and linked respondents with National Death Index records in a 10-year follow-up ending in 2005. Covariates were age, gender, race, education, any past-year mental illness, smoking, physical inactivity, physical diseases, and physical disease risk factors.
resultsA total of 6.3% of participants died during the study period. The final and fully adjusted odds ratio of mortality was 1.62 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00, 2.62; P = .05) for adults who were not flourishing, relative to participants with flourishing mental health. Age, gender, race, education, smoking, physical inactivity, cardiovascular disease, and HIV/AIDS were significant predictors of death during the study period.
conclusionsThe absence of positive mental health increased the probability of all-cause mortality for men and women at all ages after adjustment for known causes of death.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.