Dorothy L. Tengler Thursday, February 04, 2016

We all have a need to find purpose in life. Some people find a way to express their purposes in their jobs, while others seek opportunities outside their daily work.

Our purpose in life may be something grand and complicated, or it may be as simple as dispensing love and kindness wherever we go. Just as we eat healthy foods and exercise to take care of our bodies, seeking a meaningful life of purpose nourishes the spirit and, as contemporary research shows, improves our emotional and physical health as well.

According to a recent study by Drs. Randy Cohen and Alan Rozanski and colleagues at Mt. Sinai St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, New York, possessing a high sense of purpose in life is associated with a reduced risk for mortality and cardiovascular events. While the mechanisms behind the association remain unclear, the findings suggest that approaches to strengthening a sense of purpose might lead to improved health outcomes.

Researchers pooled data from previous studies evaluating the relationship between purpose in life and the risk of death or cardiovascular disease. The electronic databases PubMed, Embase and PsycINFO were systematically searched through June 2015 to identify all studies investigating the relationship between purpose in life, mortality and cardiovascular events.

Articles were selected for inclusion if, a) they were prospective, b) evaluated the association between some measure of purpose in life and all-cause mortality and/or cardiovascular events, and c) unadjusted and/or adjusted risk estimates and confidence intervals (CIs) were reported.

The analysis included data on more than 136,000 participants from 10 studies, mainly from the United States or Japan. The U.S. studies evaluated a sense of purpose or meaning in life, or "usefulness to others." The Japanese studies assessed the concept of ikigai, translated as "a life worth living."

The study participants, average age 67 years, were followed for about seven years. During this time, more than 14,500 participants died from any cause, while more than 4,000 suffered cardiovascular events, such as heart attack or stroke. The analysis showed a lower risk of death for participants with a high sense of purpose in life.

After adjusting for other factors, mortality was about one-fifth lower for participants reporting a strong sense of purpose, or ikigai. A high sense of purpose in life was also related to a lower risk of cardiovascular events. Both associations remained significant on analysis of various subgroups, including country, how purpose in life was measured, and whether the studies included participants with pre-existing cardiovascular disease.

According to the study authors, there is a well-documented link between negative psychosocial risk factors and adverse health outcomes, including heart attack, stroke and overall mortality. This analysis provides evidence that positive psychosocial factors can promote healthy physiological functioning and greater longevity.

Although researchers are currently unable to pinpoint the biological mechanisms that are in play, the findings suggest that approaches to strengthening a sense of purpose might lead to improved health outcomes. The association might be explained physiologically, such as by buffering of bodily responses to stress; or behaviorally, such as by a healthier lifestyle.

Although having a strong sense of life purpose has long been thought to be an important dimension of life, providing people with a sense of vitality motivation and resilience, the medical implications of living with a high or low sense of life purpose have only recently caught the attention of investigators. The current findings are important because they may open up new potential interventions for helping people to promote their health and sense of well-being.