ArticleAmerican journal of health promotion : AJHP2022
Sense of Purpose in Life and Subsequent Physical, Behavioral, and Psychosocial Health: An Outcome-Wide Approach.
Article in American journal of health promotion : AJHP, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
50 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Purpose in life and slow walking speed: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations.GeroScience · 2024Pooled it
- Improving Purpose in Life in School Settings.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Pathways to the development of purpose in life among ethnic minority adolescents.Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence · 2026Article
- Identifying factors associated with thriving after interpersonal trauma in a Canadian sample of adults.Journal of health psychology · 2026Article
- Implementation and effectiveness of the WHO Self-Help Plus (SH+) intervention in the Gaza Strip: a prospective hybrid type 1 non-randomised study.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- Momentary associations between purpose in life and social connection from a micro-longitudinal study of everyday life.Acta psychologica · 2026Article
- High purpose in life of older adults is associated with younger age, higher education, and being female.Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria · 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
- Discordance in gender role attitudes between spouses and its relationship with the risk biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases: a couple-level analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Purpose in Life and Estimated Type 2 Diabetes Risk: Cross-Sectional Associations Across Three Validated Risk Scores in 93,077 Spanish Working Adults.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 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
- Reflective-dialogic classroom climate and adolescents' academic purpose: a multilevel moderated mediation model.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Rethinking grit in Chinese higher education: toward a purpose-based account of perseverance.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The role of purpose in life in healthy aging: implications for the Semmelweis Study and the Semmelweis-EUniWell Workplace Health Promotion Model Program.GeroScience · 2025Review
- Chronic Pain, Mental Health, and Sense of Purpose in Life Among Women Living with HIV Compared to HIV-Negative Women in the British Columbia CARMA-CHIWOS Collaboration (BCC3) Study.AIDS and behavior · 2025Article
- Purpose in life and loneliness among African American women: an application of latent growth mixture modeling.The journal of positive psychology · 2025Article
- Identifying childhood correlates of adult purpose and meaning across 22 countries (Global Flourishing Study).Npj mental health research · 2025Article
- Analytic methodology for demographic variation analyses for wave 1 of the global flourishing study.BMC global and public health · 2025Article
- Relationship between physical activity and eudaimonic well-being in college students based on Ryff's six-factor model of psychological well-being.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Psychological indicators for healthy aging: validation of the German short version of Ryff's scales of psychological well-being (SPWB).Journal of patient-reported outcomes · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeGrowing evidence indicates that a higher sense of
designWe evaluated if positive change in SAMPLE: We used data from 12,998 participants in the Health and Retirement study-a prospective and nationally representative cohort of U.S. adults aged >50. ANALYSIS: We conducted multiple linear-, logistic-, and generalized linear regressions.
resultsOver the 4-year follow-up period, people with the highest (versus lowest) purpose had better subsequent physical health outcomes (e.g., 46% reduced risk of mortality (95% CI [0.44, 0.66])), health behaviors (e.g., 13% reduced risk of sleep problems (95% CI [0.77, 0.99])), and psychosocial outcomes (e.g., higher optimism (β = 0.41, 95% CI [0.35, 0.47]), 43% reduced risk of depression (95% CI [0.46, 0.69]), lower loneliness (β = -0.35, 95% CI [-0.41, -0.29])). Importantly, however, purpose was not associated with other physical health outcomes, health behaviors, and social factors.
conclusionWith further research, these results suggest that sense of purpose might be a valuable target for innovative policy and intervention work aimed at improving health and well-being.
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Registered trials
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.