The news story that this blog entry is devoted to reports on a scientific study that found popular people tend to have fewer medical problems through life.
“Schoolchildren who are favourites with their classmates continue to benefit from their popularity into adulthood, a new study has found. Children who are high in their school pecking order at age 12 or 13 are less likely to be hospitalised up to the age of 50, compared with their less popular classmates.”
The scientists don’t know why. But they have some guesses.
“It’s hard to know where the health advantages come from, but the researchers have a few ideas. Heart disease and diabetes, which were strongly linked to lower status at school, can both be caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. It might be that being more confident or having a positive self-image somehow helped people develop healthier habits, which would cut their risk of heart problems.
Another theory is that more popular people can draw on more resources throughout their lives, perhaps by earning more money, or getting more help from friends.”
Those Scientists R Stoopid. While it is possible that the things mentioned in the study have some influence on popular people being healthier throughout life, that is not what is going on here.
There are two different reasons that account for the fact that popular people have fewer health problems.
( 1 ) – Popular people have strong energy.
What is it that makes a person popular? The common preconceptions would be that popular people are physically attractive or verbally engaging. According to Happeh Theory though, popular people are popular because they have strong energy. Human beings are naturally attracted to strong energy, so they swarm around popular people to be around their strong energy, not because they want to be near the physical appearance or verbal wit of the popular person.
( 2 ) Popular people are given more energy by the people they are popular with. That raises their energy level even higher, making them even more resistant to health problems
People who want to be near a popular people will unconsciously give their energy to the popular person. That raises the energy level of the popular people even higher than it’s already high level, which makes them even more resistant to health problems.
The original news story is reprinted next.
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Schoolchildren who are favourites with their classmates continue to benefit from their popularity into adulthood, a new study has found. Children who are high in their school pecking order at age 12 or 13 are less likely to be hospitalised up to the age of 50, compared with their less popular classmates.
What do we know already?
High-status people often have better health than the people around them. In some ways, this is hardly surprising. Better educated people might be able to make more informed decisions about their diet or lifestyle. Wealthier people can buy private healthcare, perhaps with shorter waiting times or access to the most expensive medicines. However, there’s some intriguing research hinting that success itself, rather than the trappings of success, could lead to better health. A 2001 study found that, even among famous actors, those who’d won an Oscar lived about four years longer on average.
A new study has looked at around 14,000 people who were sixth graders (age 12 or 13) in Swedish schools in 1966. They were all asked to nominate the three people they most liked to work with in class. Years later, researchers looked at hospital records, to see how popularity corresponded with health.
What does the new study say?
People who were less popular at school were more likely to need hospital treatment of some sort between the ages of 20 and 50. There was a slightly higher risk of lots of illnesses, but the strongest links were with heart disease and diabetes.
In the study, people who were picked as a work partner by seven or more classmates were termed favourites. They were compared with popular children (four to six picks), accepted children (two to three), peripheral (one pick), and marginalised children (no picks). There was a slight but steady decrease in health, judging by the amount of times people needed hospital treatment, from the most popular children to the least.
It’s hard to know where the health advantages come from, but the researchers have a few ideas. Heart disease and diabetes, which were strongly linked to lower status at school, can both be caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. It might be that being more confident or having a positive self-image somehow helped people develop healthier habits, which would cut their risk of heart problems.
Another theory is that more popular people can draw on more resources throughout their lives, perhaps by earning more money, or getting more help from friends.
Some researchers think there could also be psychological advantages to being more popular. Feeling valued might mean someone suffers less stress, which could potentially have health benefits. Some studies suggest that stress hormones could have negative effects on the heart, for example.
How reliable are the findings?
With research like this, it’s often difficult to separate cause and effect. For example, some of the extra hospital visits were because of mental health problems. It’s possible that children with early signs of mental illness are less accepted at school, so illness led to reduced popularity rather than the other way round.
The study was done using hospital records, so it might be that some people were more likely to seek medical help, and not that they were more likely to get ill.
Another issue is that some illnesses tend to go together. For example, people with diabetes have a higher risk of heart problems. So, a few people with lots of illnesses (and lots of hospital visits) may have skewed the results.
The researchers tried to account for the fact that some children came from wealthier or higher-status families by factoring in the social class of their parents. But even when this was included in the calculations, there still seemed to be a health benefit for children who were popular at school.
Where does the study come from?
The research was done in Stockholm. It appeared in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, which is published by the BMJ Group.
Funding came from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research, and from the Swedish Research Council.
From:
Almquist Y. Peer status in school and adult disease risk: a 30-year follow-up study of disease-specific morbidity in a Stockholm cohort. Forthcoming in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.