It's a stressful time out there, and now it's proven

William Atkins
Friday, 13 March 2009 01:53

Science - Health

According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, Americans are under stress as never before—and it began to show up as the economy also became stressed out in the last quarter of 2008.


Read more if you dare because the survey is ongoing and 2009 isn’t showing much improvement in our emotional state.

However, if you put on a happy face, maybe we can change the direction of this poll.

The Well-Being Index, a trademarked survey of Gallup-Healthways, (according to its website): “… has been developed to provide the official measure for health and well-being. It's the voice of Americans and the most ambitious effort ever undertaken to measure what people believe constitutes a good life.”

The survey, which is a collaborative effort between survey research company Gallup, headquartered in Washington, D.C., and health-management company Healthways, headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, is performed every day.

In fact, it is performed using 1,000 people who are believed to be representative of the citizens of the United States. They were interviewed daily in 2008 for a total of 355,334 times over a period of 351 days.

You can find further information on Healthways and their surveys on its website: http://www.healthways.com

The results of the survey show evidence that the emotional well-being of the nation is tied in with its economic good times and its financial bad times, which seem to have overtaken us lately.

The surveyors for Gallup-Healthways found that stress, depression, and overall “bad” feelings were much higher in the autumn of 2008, when the stock market plunged. The ongoing survey continued into winter and now into the first three months of 2009.

Page two continues with this report, but turns it onto a "happy" note. Stay tuned in!