ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2022
Sense of purpose in life and inflammation in healthy older adults: A longitudinal study.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Purpose in life and c-reactive protein: An individual-participant meta-analysis of >50,000 adults.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Pooled it
- Purpose in life and stress: An individual-participant meta-analysis of 16 samples.Journal of affective disorders · 2024Pooled it
- Life Sustaining Well-Being Practices and Physiological Health Among Black Men.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Investigating psychosocial factors and systemic inflammation using dried blood spots: a scoping review.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Aging Attitudes Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults with Disabilities: Gender Differences and Predictors.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Purpose in Life and Stress Reactivity.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Article
- The psychosocial anti-inflammatories: Sense of control, purpose in life, and social support in relation to inflammation, functional health and chronic conditions in adulthood.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2024Article
- Changes in Purpose in Life and Low-Grade Chronic Inflammation Across Older Adulthood.International journal of aging & human development · 2024Article
- Positive psychological well-being and cardiovascular health.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
- Purpose in life as a resilience factor for brain health: diffusion MRI findings from the Midlife in the U.S. study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- The emerging role of medical foods and therapeutic potential of medical food-derived exosomes.Nanoscale advances · 2023Review
- Healthy Eating as Potential Mediator of Inverse Association between Purpose in Life and Waist Circumference: Emerging Evidence from US and Chilean Cohorts.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Purpose in life and markers of immunity and inflammation: Testing pathways of episodic memory.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2023Article
- Biopsychosocial Factors That Influence the Purpose in Life among Working Adults and Retirees.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Relationships of Purpose in Life with Mental Health Among Older Adults: Links to Health and Social Behaviors.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundA higher sense of purpose in life has been linked with reduced risk of age-related chronic health conditions that share elevated inflammation as a key risk factor (e.g., neurodegenerative diseases, heart disease, and diabetes). While prior research has documented cross-sectional associations between higher sense of purpose and lower inflammation, few studies have examined the association between purpose and changes in inflammation over time.
objectiveWe tested if a higher sense of purpose was prospectively associated with lower likelihood of developing unhealthy C-reactive protein levels in older adults who initially had healthy CRP levels (i.e., <3 ug/mL).
methodsParticipants were 6925 adults aged > 50 in the Health and Retirement Study who were followed for 8 years. Participants completed the purpose in life subscale of the Ryff Psychological Well-being Scales at study baseline in 2006/2008. CRP was obtained from blood spots collected at baseline and after 4 and 8 years of follow-up. Pooled logistic regression estimated discrete-time hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between baseline purpose and onset of unhealthy CRP levels (>3 ug/mL).
resultsThere was no strong evidence of an association between baseline continuous purpose scores and onset of unhealthy CRP levels over time in the overall analytic sample. In sex-stratified models, higher purpose was associated with lower hazards of developing unhealthy CRP levels among men, while associations were null in women (e.g., in sociodemographics-adjusted model, men: HR=0.89, 95% CI: 0.79-0.99; women: HR=0.96, 95% CI: 0.85-1.08; interaction between continuous purpose scores and sex p = 0.15).
conclusionsFindings suggest that a higher versus lower sense of purpose is associated with lower inflammation levels in older men. In specific populations, purpose may serve as a novel target for future interventions aimed at reducing inflammation.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.