Little is known about the perception of lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Researchers recruited subjects from the Dallas Heart Study, and each subject was classified as high or low for risk of CVD. Subjects were then assessed for their perceived lifetime risk for a myocardial infarction. There was significant discordance between perceived and predicted lifetime risk.
While low levels of negative emotion or high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness are predictors of long-term survival in men and women, being both fit and not unhappy provides a strong combined effect, reducing premature death by 63 percent, according to this study.
