Rush University Medical Center:
After adjusting for age, sex, education and race, a higher purpose of life was associated with a substantially reduced risk of mortality.
Thus, a person with high purpose in life was about half as likely to die over the follow-up period compared to a person with low purpose.
The association of purpose in life with mortality did not differ among men and women or whites and blacks, and the finding persisted even after controlling for depressive symptoms, disability, neuroticism, the number of medical conditions and income.