Researchers from Rush University Medical Center (Illinois, USA) studied 1,238 dementia-free older men and women, evaluating their purpose in life at the study’s start and during the five-year study period. After controlling for factors such as depression, chronic medical conditions, and disability, the researchers found that those study participants with higher sense-of-purpose scores were half as likely to die during the three-year study follow-up period, as compared to those with a lower sense of purpose.

Having a greater sense of purpose may promote self-worth and expand a person’s social connectivity, with a resulting greater sense of accomplishment that may translate to more years of life.