ScienceDaily: Higher sense of purpose in life may be linked to lower mortality risk, study finds

“"Having a purpose in life has been known to improve many health outcomes on average," says study lead author Dr. Koichiro Shiba, assistant professor of epidemiology at BUSPH. "In another study I led, we found that the effect of purpose on lowering all-cause mortality may differ by socioeconomic status. In this study, we extended the prior evidence and found that the beneficial effect of purpose persisted regardless of gender and race/ethnicity."

For the study, Dr. Shiba and colleagues at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan) utilized data from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative study of US adults ages 50 and older. The team assessed self-reported sense of purpose among more than 13,000 people, based on the "purpose in life" of the Ryff Psychological Well-being Scales, a widely used tool that measures different aspects of well-being and happiness. The researchers also examined mortality risk over an eight-year period beginning between 2006-2008.

The results showed that people with the highest sense of purpose indicated the lowest risk of death (15.2 percent mortality risk), compared to people with the lowest sense of purpose (36.5 percent mortality risk).

The team also gathered data on additional factors that can influence health, such socioeconomic status, other demographic characteristics, baseline physical health, and depression, and found that an increase in these factors was also associated with increases in a higher sense of purpose.."

Some Insights From This Article

• Having a purpose in life can help with prolonging our life as well! Research shows that higher sense of purpose in life was associated with lower risks of mortality compared to people with lower sense of purpose.

• An interesting side study showed that elderly people often can find themselves in overall good health and standing when they’re working and striving for certain purposes (such as work, family, etc). The opposite can be unfortunately true as sometimes elderly people can find their health deteriorates suddenly when their purpose has been taken from them.

• Sometimes the best way we can help our health is focussing on a specific purpose in which to live life whether it be for our careers, family or anything else!

What is your current purpose in life?

Full article is here!

#Purpose #Health #Life