ArticlePreventive medicine2020
Sense of purpose in life and five health behaviors in older adults.
Article in Preventive medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 90 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
90 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Purpose in life and lung function: an individual-participant meta-analysis of six cohort studies.Respiratory research · 2025Pooled it
- Purpose in life and grip strength: An individual-participant meta-analysis of 115,972 participants from 24 countries across four continents.GeroScience · 2025Pooled it
- Purpose in life and concurrent and incident fatigue.Psychology, health & medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Purpose in life and blood-based biomarkers of brain health.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Emotional Vitality, Flourishing, and Healthy Lifestyles in Young Adults: A Longitudinal Study.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- Wellbeing trajectories and dementia risk among Mexican-origin adults living in the U.S.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Do all components of psychological well-being predict cognitive function?The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- The association between health-related quality of life and the meaning of life in community-dwelling older adults.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Sociocultural Determinants of Mental Health in Indigenous Older Adults: Results from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study.Journal of cross-cultural gerontology · 2026Article
- The longitudinal relation between purpose in life and accelerometer-measured physical activity.Mental health and physical activity · 2026Article
- Do purpose in life and self-directedness mediate the effects of child abuse on anxiety and depression symptoms 18 years later?Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Daily Activities and Purpose in Life.International journal of wellbeing · 2026Article
- Self-worth systems in aging societies: a narrative review and conceptual framework from self-esteem to healthy longevity.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- The Physiology of the WEight-Reduced State (POWERS) study: environmental, psychological, and social determinants of health.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Article
- Article
- Maintaining cognitive and physical health across the adult lifespan: the contribution of psychosocial factors.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- Association Between Swallowing Dysfunction and Multidimensional Quality of Life Among Community-Dwelling Healthy Korean Older Adults: A Pilot Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Sense of purpose and emotion regulation strategy use: A mini-review with directions for future research.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2025Review
- Multidimensional Determinants of Obesity: The Role of Life Purpose, Sociodemographics, and Health Habits Across Four Adiposity Scales in a Large Occupational Cohort.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
30 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Accumulating evidence shows that a higher sense of purpose in life is associated with lower risk of chronic conditions and premature mortality. Health behaviors might partially explain these findings, however, the prospective association between sense of purpose and health behaviors is understudied. We tested whether a higher sense of purpose at baseline was associated with lower likelihood of developing unhealthy behaviors over time. Prospective data were from the Health and Retirement Study, a national sample of U.S. older adults. Our sample included 13,770 adults assessed up to five times across eight years. Among people who met recommended guidelines for a given health behavior outcome at baseline, those in the top versus lowest quartile of purpose in life had 24% lower likelihood of becoming physically inactive (95% CI: 0.68-0.85), 33% lower likelihood of developing sleep problems (95% CI: 0.58-0.79), and 22% lower likelihood of developing unhealthy body mass index (BMI) (95% CI: 0.69-0.87) in sociodemographic-adjusted models. Further there was a marginal reduction in smoking relapse (HR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.41-1.03) and no association with heavy alcohol use (HR = 1.02, 95% CI: 0.81-1.29). Findings for physical inactivity, sleep problems, and unhealthy BMI remained evident after further adjusting for baseline health status and depression. Our results, suggest that a sense of purpose in life might emerge (with further research) as a valuable target to consider for interventions aimed at helping older adults maintain some health behaviors.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.