Mental health professionals have long wondered about the relationship between life expectancy and having a higher purpose in life. An article published in Medical News Today June 16, 2009, “Having A Higher Purpose In Life Reduces Risk Of Death Among Older Adults,” examines this issue. The researchers studied, “…..studied 1,238 community-dwelling elderly participants from two ongoing research studies, the Rush Memory and Aging Project and the Minority Aging Research Study. None had dementia. Data from baseline evaluations of purpose in life and up to five years of follow-up were used to test the hypothesis that greater purpose in life is associated with a reduced risk of mortality among community-dwelling older persons…Purpose in life reflects the tendency to derive meaning from life's experiences and be focused and intentional…” The results of this study were very interesting. “….After adjusting for age, sex, education and race, a higher purpose of life was associated with a substantially reduced risk of mortality. Thus, a person with high purpose in life was about half as likely to die over the follow-up period compared to a person with low purpose. The association of purpose in life with mortality did not differ among men and women or whites and blacks, and the finding persisted even after controlling for depressive symptoms, disability, neuroticism, the number of medical conditions and income….Significant associations with mortality were found with three specific items on the purpose of life questionnaire to determine the study participants' agreement with the following statements: "I sometimes feel as if I've done all there is to do in life;" "I used to set goals for myself, but that now seems like a waste of time;" and "My daily activities often seem trivial and unimportant to me." There are several important implications of this study. First, older individuals who are considering retirement should aim for retirement activities that give true meaning to one’s life. Second, mental health professionals who treat older patients should screen all of these patients for the quality of their lives. Third, public health professionals should educate the public about the importance of having a higher purpose to life. The researchers concluded, “….finding that purpose in life is related to longevity in older persons suggests that aspects of human flourishing particularly the tendency to derive meaning from life's experiences and possess a sense of intentionality and goal-directedness contribute to successful aging….having a sense of purpose in life is important across the lifespan, measurement of purpose in life in older persons in particular may reveal an enduring sense of meaningfulness and intentionality in life that somehow provides a buffer against negative health outcomes."
The Bottom Line: The results of this study suggest that older individuals should seek a higher purpose in life to decrease their mortality risk.
Reference: Original article
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