Modern medicine can treat diabetes and many other chronic conditions, but prescribing happiness has been a far more elusive goal.
Researchers at the University of Illinois’ Grainger College of Engineering and College of Applied Health Sciences, as well as at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, are seeking to change that by analyzing patient data to identify variables that influence happiness at both individual and community levels.
“In Taiwan and globally, people are living longer but are experiencing more years in poorer health,” said Distinguished Professor Heng-Hsin Shannon Tung, Department of Nursing at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. “We believe that happiness is as important as physical health and even influences physical health, which is why it’s so important for us to understand it better.”
The research team will start by collecting and analyzing the biometric data of 3,000 hospital patients with Type 1 diabetes. The data will be supplemented by a corresponding happiness index collected through a survey. The team will then compare biometric data with happiness scores to determine whether there are causal effects.
“When people with chronic disease, such as diabetes, come to the hospital, we only study their physical biometrics, such as their A1C levels,” Tung said. “In this project, we want to look at these physical biometrics alongside happiness scores and determine whether there may be factors that affect happiness and whether evidence-based interventions could improve happiness scores.”
Illinois’ George Heintz, who directs the health data analytics initiative in the Health Care Engineering Systems Center, will lead the effort to analyze the patient data. Ultimately, with support from professor Yih-Kuen Jan, UIUC plans to offer recommendations based on the study’s results.
“Happiness is a subjective perception, and our goal is to identify if it can be influenced through available treatment options,” Heintz said. “The major challenge of this project is to enhance perceived happiness, boost patients’ positive attitude towards the treatment and subsequently increase compliance, and foster a positive environment.”
The team is securing the approval of the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University’s institutional review board, which governs human research, and plans to start the project soon. Hung said she hopes to conduct a follow-up project that would include data collection in patient homes, which could provide additional information and help patients live independently longer.