Having goals is a big tick for longer and healthier life

HAVING a sense of direction and goals in life lowers the risk of an early death, a study suggests.

Scientists at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Boston University School of Public Health have shown that having purpose in life appears to protect against death from all causes.

The research adds to a growing body of evidence which suggests that having something to strive towards can lead to better physical health, including a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline.

Researchers studied data from more than 13,000 US adults aged 50 years or over, following them for eight years.

They found that someone with the lowest sense of purpose had a 36.5 per cent risk of death over the period, meaning around one in three of the most aimless would be expected to die.

In contrast, those with the most direction in life had a 15.2 per cent risk of dying, equating to one in six people dying in the eight-year study.

Brendan Kelly, professor of psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin, said: “We are living on standby mode with a slightly high level of cortisol and this affects every organ of the body.

“What a sense of purpose or meaning does is it allows us to regulate this system a lot better. This is why an overarching purpose adds so much to our physical wellbeing.”

“Once we feel we have control we will do things like looking after our physical health. If we really believe that we can control our health outcomes, we will take action.”

While previous research in this area has been based on population averages, this is the first study to show that the health benefits of a sense of purpose are similar for men and women and for different racial or ethnic minorities.

Dr Koichiro Shiba, lead author of the study, said: “Even though people may view purpose as a ‘psychological’ factor, its impacts on health cannot be explained solely by processes that operate in our mind and biology. We need to consider how the psychological factor interacts with our social world and ultimately impacts our health.”

Similarly, earlier research by Dr Shiba has shown that people of lower socioeconomic status with moderate levels of purpose may “benefit less health-wise from having a purpose”.

He suggests that low-income groups may not have access to the “resources necessary … to engage in healthy lifestyles”, such as access to green spaces or regular medical care.

The study’s findings were published in the journal.