In recent years, positive psychological factors, such as subjective happiness and laughter, have been reported to be associated with cardiovascular disease. In this study, we examined the relationship of hypertension with subjective happiness and frequency of laughter using the data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES). Of the 138,294 respondents, 26,368 responded to a version of the self-administered questionnaire that included a question about the frequency of laughter in the JAGES 2013. In total, 22,503 (10,571 men and 11,932 women) were included in the analysis after excluding those with missing responses regarding a history of hypertension, frequency of laughter, and subjective happiness. The prevalence of hypertension in this study was 10,364 (46.1%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age, female sex, obesity, infrequent chewing, former and current drinker, seeing three to five friends, and the absence of hobbies were positively associated with hypertension. However, infrequent laughter/high level of subjective happiness, frequent laughter/high level of subjective happiness, being underweight, and current smoker were negatively associated with hypertension. As per the findings of this study, it was determined that subjective happiness was negatively associated with hypertension. Therefore, this study suggests that having more opportunities to feel happiness may be important in preventing hypertension.
Keywords: Japan; hypertension; laughter; older adults; subjective happiness.