General Health News
A little worry may be good for your health
By Anne Harding
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Moderately happy people are wealthier -- and maybe healthier -- than extremely happy individuals, according to a psychologist who has researched happiness for more than two decades and his associates.
While people who are happy are certainly more healthy and successful than those who are angry and depressed, Dr. Ed Diener of the University of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign told Reuters Health, people who are moderately happy may achieve more than those who are extremely happy. They might also live longer.
"Our findings suggest that extremely high levels of happiness might not be a desirable goal and that there is more to psychological well-being than high-levels of happiness," Diener and his team report in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science.
Middle-age is truly depressing, study finds
LONDON (Reuters) - Middle age is truly miserable, according to a study using data from 80 countries showing that depression is most common among men and women in their forties.
The British and U.S. researchers found that happiness for people ranging from Albania to Zimbabwe follows a U-shaped curve where life begins cheerful before turning tough during middle age and then returning to the joys of youth in the golden years.
Previous studies have shown that psychological well-being remained flat throughout life but the new findings to be published in the journal Social Science & Medicine suggest we are in for a topsy-turvy emotional ride.
"In a remarkably regular way throughout the world people slide down a U-shaped level of happiness and mental health throughout their lives," Andrew Oswald at Britain's Warwick University, who co-led the study, said on Tuesday.
The researchers analyzed data on depression, anxiety levels and general mental health and well-being taken from some 2 million people in 80 countries.
U-SHAPED PATTERN
Healthways shares fall on CMS medicare program worries
(Recasts, adds analyst comments, updates share movement)
By Niveditha Ravi
BANGALORE, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Shares of Healthways Inc (HWAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research) plunged about 20 percent Wednesday after a medicare pilot program, in which the healthcare provider is involved, showed it did not meet certain norms.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which conducted the study, said on its Web site that phase 1 of its Medicare Health Support (MHS) program, which will end this year, did not meet some statutory requirements necessary to expand it into next stage.
The requirements include improvement in clinical quality and beneficiary satisfaction and achievement of savings targets.
"This medicare pilot has been flawed from the day that it was started," Arthur Henderson, an analyst with Jefferies & Co., said terming the news "not surprising."