Harvard University in the US is establishing a new Lee Kum Sheung Center for health and happiness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The new centre will “support the identification of psychological, social and emotional strengths and assets that may protect against some diseases and enable people to enjoy longer, happier lives.” It is being built with a gift of more than US$21m (€18, £14m) from the Lee Kum Kee Family – descendants of Lee Kum Sheung, who first invented oyster sauce in 1888, and owners of multinational companies LKK Health Products Group as well as Lee Kum Kee Sauce Group.

The faculty at the new centre will attempt to broaden the focus of public health and medical research beyond the current focus on deficits or risk factors that lead to disease, and instead focus on the positive aspects of health – things like close relationships with family and friends, a meaningful job, regular exercise, leisure activities and a positive mindset – and focus on how they can enhance psychological and physical well-being and increase years of healthy ageing.

“Medical and psychological practice and research have traditionally focused on the diseases and deficits that cause poor health,” said professor Laura Kubzansky, the Lee Kum Kee professor of social and behavioural health at the Harvard Chan School and co-director of the new centre.

“But there is real value in focusing on the positive side as well – the assets that keep us healthy or help us recover more quickly from disease or injury. More rigorous research is urgently needed to understand these positive assets and how to promote them for millions of people around the world.”

The centre will focus on both new research and assembling what is already known about the role of happiness and wellbeing in relation to health.

“By leveraging what is known together with new research discoveries, we believe the new centre will develop evidence-based recommendations and interventions that can demonstrably improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and entire populations,” said David Hunter, acting dean of the Harvard Chan School.

“Our goal is to bring about enlightened public policies and public health programmes that can affect the health of large numbers of people, as well as set new priorities in medical practice and personal behaviours that can help individuals live longer, healthier lives.”

Initial efforts will include developing a measurement instrument or ‘happiness index’ that can assess psychological wellbeing in a systematic, scientifically sound manner; looking at the relationship between psychological wellbeing and cardiovascular health, healthy ageing and longevity; determining the effects of interventions promoting psychological wellbeing, such as mindfulness-based practices, on health and happiness; and examining the role of communications – from television programming to social media – on engagement, health and happiness.

“Happiness is often talked about as if it were a cute catchphrase,” said professor K. ‘Vish’ Viswanath, Lee Kum Kee professor of health communication at the Harvard Chan School and co-director of the new centre. “But in fact, happiness is a product of how one is engaged with the world...This centre will enable us to investigate in a systematic and rigorous way the factors that promote engagement, communication, community, and connection with others, and how engagement or lack of engagement can influence happiness, and ultimately, health.”