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This work was supported by Miguel Servet Research Contract (CP14/00041 and CPII19/00009) to J.R., PFIS Predoctoral Contract FI16/00311 to A.A.E. and Research Projects PI14/00292 and PI19/00394 from the Plan Nacional de I + D + i 2013-2016, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Subdireccion General de Evaluacion y Fomento de la Investigacion and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, `Investing in your future'). The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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Can we increase the subjective well-being of the general population? An umbrella review of the evidence

Publicated to:Revista De Psiquiatria Y Salud Mental. 14 (1): 50-64 - 2021-03-01 14(1), DOI: 10.1016/j.rpsm.2020.08.002

Authors: Solanes, Aleix; Albajes-Eizagirre, Anton; Fullana, Miquel A; Fortea, Lydia; Fusar-Poli, Paolo; Torrent, Carla; Sole, Brisa; Mar Bonnin, Caterina; Shin, Jae Il; Vieta, Eduard; Radua, Joaquim

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Abstract

Subjective well-being (SWB) refers to being satisfied with one's life, having positive affect and having little negative affect. We may understand it as a subjective definition of good life, or in colloquial terms "happiness", and it has been associated with several important benefits such as lower mortality. In the last decades, several randomized controlled trials (RCT) have investigated the efficacy of several interventions in increasing SWB in the general population but results from different disciplines have not been integrated.We conducted an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of RCT that assess the efficacy of any kind of interventions in increasing SWB in the general population, including both positive psychology interventions (PPI) and other interventions. We (re)calculated the meta-analytic statistics needed to objectively assess the quality of the evidence of the efficacy of each type of intervention in improving each component of SWB according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach.There was moderate-quality evidence that PPI might induce small decreases of negative affect, and low-quality evidence that they might induce moderate increases of positive affect. We found similar results for those PPI specifically consisting in conducting acts of kindness (especially spending money on or giving items to others), for which there was low-quality evidence that they might induces small increases of life satisfaction, but not for PPI specifically consisting in practicing gratitude. Quality of the evidence of the efficacy for the other interventions included in the umbrella review (yoga, resilience training, physical activity, leisure, control enhancement, psychoeducation, and miscellaneous) was very low.There is some evidence that PPI, and specially conducting acts of kindness such as spending money on others, may increase the SWB of the general population. The quality of the evidence of the efficacy for other interventions (e.g., yoga, physical activity, or leisure) is still very low. Registration number: PROSPERO CRD42020111681.Copyright © 2020 SEP y SEPB. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

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