Want to be happy? Sing in choirs!

Wellington, July 13 : Humming tunes is known as a good stress buster. Now, a new research has further proved it by suggesting that people who sing regularly are happier than their non-singing counterparts. In fact, choristers have a better quality of life than other people.

The results of the study are based on a survey of more than 1100 choral singers in Australia, Germany and the UK.

The research found that while people who join singing groups tend to be less healthy than the average person, they are in fact happier.

"They're actually much more satisfied with their health overall and their life in general than everyone else," Stuff.Co.NZ quoted Professor Don Stewart, head of public health at Griffith University in Queensland, as saying.

"It's quite a remarkable find really, and quite inspiring," Stewart added.

The research, presented at a national public health conference in Brisbane this week, involved 21 choirs, including five from southeast Queensland.

It found 51 per cent of the choralists had long-term health problems, more than twice the Australian norm. They also scored below average on a WHO scale of psychological health and social functioning.

However, 98 per cent rated their quality of life as good or excellent, and 81 per cent were satisfied or very satisfied with their health.

"That's definitely above the norm so there's something special happening here," Stewart said.

ANI