Money cannot buy happiness, but solid relationships can. And having these links can also bring better health.
This is the main lesson of Harvard study on adult developmentOne of the longest in -depth studies in the world on physical and mental health in adults, said that its director, Robert Waldinger, professor of psychiatry at Harvard medical school and a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
In its 87th year, the longitudinal study represents the oldest scientific examination in the world of human health and happiness. He started in 1938 with 724 participants and went to 2,500, including the wives and descendants of the original participants.
“Lessons do not concern wealth, fame, or harder and harder work,” said Waldinger in a 2015 Ted Talk It has been seen almost 50 million times.
“The clearest message is as follows: good relationships keep us happier and healthier.”
“The clearest message is as follows: good relationships keep us happier and better healthy.
The data collected by the study over the decades, made up of medical records, brain scanners, interviews and questionnaires in person, are a treasure of information that can be used for research beyond that of the Waldinger group.
Currently, Harvard’s study is collaborating with researchers from the Boston Veterans Administration, the Northwestern University, the University of Malmo in Sweden and the Bryn Mawr College.
One of these collaborations examines the exposure to lead in childhood, through air and water, and its potential impact on physical and mental health by using the data of the study on the participants and the districts where they grew up, including exposure to lead and their physical and mental well-being throughout their lives.
This collaborative study also aims to examine whether the long -term effects of lead exposure affected the levels of juvenile delinquency, the abandonment of the school or the development of dementia later in life.
Over the years, the study has been financed mainly by subsidies from the National Institutes of Health and since 2003 by subsidies from the National Institute of Aging.
Harvard’s study was not affected by recent Trump administration financing cuts, but cuts are a threat to long -term research, which can only be supported by government funding, Waldinger said.
“So many foundations will make a pilot subsidy,” said Waldinger. “But then, they do not want to continue to finance something for eight decades, of course, but the government can undertake these major longer projects. The government is the only source of financing likely to do so.”
In the case of the Harvard study, federal funding covered the tests and the remuneration of participants and the wages of research assistants, who make visits in person or telephone calls, and collect and store data.
But another key advantage in federal funding projects is that they help train young scientists who will continue to direct research discoveries, said Waldinger.
“Many of our most important discoveries are discoveries that occur because people were investigating an area that did not necessarily have direct practical application when they started to study it, then they discovered things that turn out to be extremely important things.”
Longitudinal research, or studying people over time, is a specialized study that requires special statistical techniques. Over the years, dozens of undergraduate students, PH.D. Applicants, postdoctoral scholarship holders and junior teachers have been trained by Harvard study, he said.
Critics fear that recent financing cuts can discourage young scientists from participating in research. Even if the funds are restored in the next administration, the researchers’ pipeline will have been disrupted, said Waldinger. Some of his students no longer consider research as a reliable career, and many come into clinical work or affairs, he added, but the effects on the position of the country as the world leader in scientific research and discoveries are also disturbing.
“My biggest concern is that we will stop being the first place of research,” said Waldinger.
“Many of our most important discoveries are discoveries that occur because people were investigating an area that did not necessarily have direct practical application when they started to study it, then they discovered things that turn out to be extremely important things.”
In addition, a large part of research has fueled economic innovation over the decades, and financing reductions have also endangered this progress. “So, even if you were simply interested in money and not by knowledge and science, you would say that it is a really important thing to continue, and we should never lose that, or we will lose our economically advantage,” he said.