It doesn’t matter what that purpose is, lofty or more mundane, just having a life purpose that you’re working to achieve impacts how long older adults live according to new research, giving answers to one of the secrets of longevity.The work appears in Psychosomatic Medicine, and was completed by team out of Rush University Medical Center.
“It can be anything – from wanting to accomplish a goal in life, to achieving something in a volunteer organization, to as little as reading a series of books,” confirms study author Dr. Patricia Boyle, a neuropsychologist at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, as well as assistant professor of behavioral sciences at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
The intriguing study involved 1,238 community dwelling older adults who were already taking part in two ongoing research projects (known as the Rush Memory and Aging Project started in 1997, and the Minority Aging Research Study started in 2004) at Rush.
Dementia free at the start of the study, the average age of the participants was 78, and they were all asked to answer questions about their purpose in life.
At the start of the research participants rated themselves in different areas that were meant to measure the tendency to find meaning from life and the ability to work toward a goal.
The average score was 3.7 (out of a possible 5.0) on the sense of purpose evaluation.
In a follow up period that lasted up to five years, the researchers found that those who reported a greater level of purpose in life were about half as likely to die during the follow up as those who reported a lower level of purpose.
Even after factoring for things like depression, chronic medical conditions or disability, as well as age, sex, education and race, life purpose was still a factor in living longer.
“What this is saying is, if you find purpose in life, if you find your life is meaningful and if you have goal-directed behavior, you are likely to live longer.”
Study lead Dr. Patricia Boyle, believes this work is the first large-scale investigation to look at the link between life purpose and longevity.
Earlier work has shown that having a purpose in life is important to maintaining psychological wellness, as well as being important to physical health as well.
This follows up another study that found that retirees over 65 who carry out volunteer work had less than half the risk of dying during the four year follow up than those who did not give of their time.
You can learn more about the benefits of volunteering by checking out the website for the U.S. Corporation for National and community Service. Some of the best benefits of volunteering include…
- Meeting new people.
- Feeling needed and valued
- Sharing your skills and learning new ones
- Experiencing something new
- Contributing to a cause you care about
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New Study Shows Having Life Purpose Improves Longevity continued…
While this study on life purpose and longevity can’t with absolute certainty show that a sense of purpose is tied to longevity, the evidence is strong.
In the future, Boyle and her team hope to see if the secrets of longevity will work by inspiring older people to find a purpose in life… maybe by learning to set goals and then work toward achieving them.
To your good health,
Kirsten Whittaker
Daily Health Bulletin Editor
