Study shows that wellness spending leads to a longer, happier life

Consumer spending on wellness has exploded into a multitrillion-dollar market, but is any of it making a difference on people’s well-being and physical and mental health? A new report released by the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), "Defining Wellness Policy," says “yes.” The report includes the first-ever quantitative analysis that determines the relationship between wellness spending, health outcomes, and happiness across countries. It demonstrated that spending on wellness is strongly and positively correlated with increased longevity and happiness, not only for the “wealthy well” but across the board.

“As we dived into this research, it quickly became obvious that health and wellness should be embedded in the priorities for all policymaking,” said Katherine Johnston, GWI senior research fellow. “As compared to sustainability — which has been in policy conversations for so long — it is astonishing that no one has talked about wellness as a comprehensive, cross-cutting policy category in government circles. The health of people should be paramount, just like the health of the planet, and really, the two go hand in hand. We hope that this study and GWI’s upcoming wellness policy toolkits will kick-start a global conversation and more research in this area.”

Across countries, for every $844 increase in wellness spending per person, the average happiness level increases by nearly 7%. An increase of $769 in wellness spending per capita is associated with 1.26 years of extra life. While correlation does not necessarily mean causation, these important results clearly signal that there are health and well-being benefits from wellness spending.

Ophelia Yeung, GWI senior research fellow, explains, “We believe that wellness policy is crucial for bringing the benefits of wellness to everyone, especially to those who cannot pay for it or who face barriers to living a healthy lifestyle.”