A sense of humour can contribute to good health, but after the age of 70 those benefits appear to wane, according to a study in Norway.
The analysis looked at records from 53,500 individuals who were followed up after seven years, and researchers used questionnaires to evaluate the ability of individuals to understand humour and to think in a humorous manner.
“There is reason to believe that sense of humour continues to have a positive effect on mental health and social life even after people have become retirees, although the positive effect on life expectancy could not be shown after the age of 75,” said lead researcher Prof Sven Svebak from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
“At that point, genetics and biological ageing are of greater importance,” Prof Svebak said.
The new findings, published in the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, back up previous results from a study of patients in Norway with chronic renal failure, which showed that over a two-year follow-up, survival was greatest among those with the best sense of humour.
However, Prof Svebak noted that a sense of humour was not always about laughing.
“Humour is all about ways of thinking and often occurs in a process or in dialogue with others. It does not need to be externalised,” he said.
“Commonly, people with the same sense of humour tend to enjoy themselves together and can communicate humour without huge gestures. A twinkle in the eye can be more than enough.”
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