Regardless of the cause if their baseline stressors, the subjects showed a reduction in their stress levels and increased various well-being metrics.
I think that's the very definition of improving their well being on the whole. That there may be other ways to produce similar results, e.g. higher wages or less overall work hours (work/life balance) is not a counter point to the effectiveness of this particular method of accomplishing the same.
On a side, even animals with no external pressures to work show increased levels of stress from inactivity.[1] Most animals like ourselves are simply not made for sedentary life styles. So much of our mental and physical well being requires physical activity of some kind in order to produce the chemicals needed for life satiety. There's such a mountain of evidence supporting this that studies like the above aren't even very interesting anymore.
After basic necessities are met, healthy diet; moderate, regular exercise; and a sense of value and impact for one's work.
Those are the not really that secret sauce to a fulfilled life. We've known this for a long time now.
I think that's the very definition of improving their well being on the whole. That there may be other ways to produce similar results, e.g. higher wages or less overall work hours (work/life balance) is not a counter point to the effectiveness of this particular method of accomplishing the same.
On a side, even animals with no external pressures to work show increased levels of stress from inactivity.[1] Most animals like ourselves are simply not made for sedentary life styles. So much of our mental and physical well being requires physical activity of some kind in order to produce the chemicals needed for life satiety. There's such a mountain of evidence supporting this that studies like the above aren't even very interesting anymore.
After basic necessities are met, healthy diet; moderate, regular exercise; and a sense of value and impact for one's work.
Those are the not really that secret sauce to a fulfilled life. We've known this for a long time now.
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15692095