Healthy lifestyle and risk of incidence, mortality and life expectancy of mental disorders

People who adopt a healthy lifestyle have many health benefits. However, whether and to what extent a healthy lifestyle impacts on new onset of mental disorders, as well as the effect and difference in mortality and life expectancy in people without and with mental disorders is still not clear.
Researchers developed a comprehensive lifestyle score by combining seven healthy lifestyle behaviours: healthy diet, regularly physical activity, no smoking, light or moderate alcohol consumption, adequate sleep duration, active social connection, and less sedentary behaviour. The associations of lifestyle with the mental disorders incidence, mortality, and life expectancy were investigated in people without and with mental disorders. 277,875 without mental disorders and 50,250 with mental disorders participants at baseline were included in a mortality and life expectancy analysis.
The results showed that participants with healthy lifestyle pattern had a 69% (HR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.30-0.32) lower risks of new onset of mental disorders, and specifically lower of 55%, 47% and 61% for depression (HR, 0.45; 95 % CI, 0·41-0·49), anxiety (HR, 0.53; 95 % CI, 0·49-0.58), and bipolar disorder (HR, 0.39; 95 % CI, 0·27-0.58) respectively. The healthy lifestyle pattern had a 54% and 60% lower risks of death in participants without mental disorders (HR, 0.46; 95 % CI, 0.43-0·49) and with mental disorders (HR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.36-0.65) respectively. In addition, the healthy lifestyle levels had a longer life expectancy than those with poor lifestyle (intermediate: 9.0, healthy: 14.4) at age 40 years in participants with mental disorders, which is higher than that in participants without mental disorder (intermediate: 8.0, healthy: 11.6). The further stratification analysis of chronic disease and sensitivity analysis of men and women gave similar and robust results.
The study authors conclude that healthy lifestyle pattern is strongly associated with lower risk of incidence of mental disorders, depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, lower mortality, and longer life expectancy. The findings could help health professionals and policy makers to plan future healthcare services and needs.
Source: Tian S, Wang Q, Wu T, Chang S, Dun W, Zhang L, Li A, Wang G. Healthy lifestyle and risk of incidence, mortality and life expectancy of mental disorders. J Affect Disord. 2025 Nov 1;388:119592.