The most important ingredient for living a healthier, longer and better life was identified as “an optimistic outlook”, according to a new study released by AIA Group.

Having an optimistic outlook was 2.3 times more common amongst the group of people that scored highest on the insurance brand’s survey, which asked participants from six APAC markets to rate their performance across a range of behaviours and actions that were touted to enable people to live “healthier, longer, better lives”.

These eight “ingredients” were the same factors that helped combat the stresses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and were defined as:

  • Having an optimistic outlook;
  • Being active and engaged;
  • Self-motivation;
  • Understanding yourself and your emotions;
  • Feeling a sense of independence;
  • Maintaining quality relationships;
  • Never stopping learning or exploring; and
  • Making time to recharge.

Key findings included that:

  • 85% of those surveyed rated themselves as not sufficiently adopting all eight ingredients, leaving just 15% who believed they are. This group of “high performers”, reported that COVID-19 had less of a negative impact on their health and wellness efforts than the remaining 85%.
  • A pathway to improved health and wellness and one that is the easiest first step for people to take is “make time to recharge”.
  • “Be active and engaged” was also seen as important and yet, in three of the six markets, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, this was the ingredient which required the most improvement.
  • Thailand topped the rankings with 35% rating themselves as adopting almost all the eight identified behaviours and 61% saying they were achieving four or more. The corresponding scores in Mainland China were 32% and 58%, Malaysia at 29% and 54%, and Singapore at 16% and 40%.


The AIA Healthier Together study and survey was conducted by Kantar Group and involved in-depth interviews with more than 80 experts from a broad spectrum of professional disciplines across the Asia-Pacific region. These findings were validated through a survey of 6,000 consumers, representing a cross-section of cultures in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Sourced from AIA Group