People With a Purpose May Live Longer

Why bother getting up in the morning? For some older adults, there's no good answer to the question. Some feel that they've done everything there is to do. Others see no point in going through the motions of day-to-day living.

For those who do feel a sense of purpose, though, it seems that life really is for living. According to a new study covered in Health News, older adults with a sense of purpose may live significantly longer.

Patricia A. Boyle, Ph.D., along with other researchers from the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, studied 1,238 elderly individuals. All lived in care communities. None had dementia or Alzheimer's. After correcting for issues such as age, gender and economic status the team found that those people with a higher purpose of life were about half as likely to die over the follow-up period compared to a person with low purpose.

"The 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," said Boyle.

The study's findings associate higher purpose with longevity, but don't point to a causal connection. What that means, says Boyle, is that "Although we think that 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."