Harvard experts reveal the "secret to longevity": try to live "more purposefully"! Can it also help you quit smoking and drinking?
Stop living aimlessly! Study: A strong sense of mission makes people live longer
Can a strong “sense of mission” help people live longer? If you are living aimlessly, you may need to change your lifestyle! According to the latest research in “Preventative Medicine”, whether being driven by a strong sense of mission or a small goal may contribute to an increase in life expectancy, regardless of race, gender and place of residence.
A research team led by Koichiro Shiba, an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and a Ph.D. at Harvard University, collected 13,159 subjects over the age of 50 and conducted a random study for 8 years through a large cross-ethnic and gender sample. access. 3,253 subjects died after 8 years. The team also assessed the subjects’ life goals based on questionnaire items from the Ryff Mental Health Scale.
Research results show that compared with subjects with the weakest sense of mission (36.5% risk of death), subjects with specific life goals or a strong sense of mission have a death risk of about 15.2%, which is the lowest among all subjects. In addition, compared with men, women had a lower risk of all-cause death, which was 20% and 34% for male and female subjects respectively.
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Dr. Shiba speculates that the stronger association between purpose and reduced mortality observed among women may be due to gender differences in the use of health care services, “which is one of the putative pathways linking a sense of purpose to health status.” “In addition, past research also believed that people who have a goal-oriented life are more willing to engage in behaviors such as exercise and healthy eating, and are less willing to engage in bad habits, such as smoking, drinking, or alternating day and night.
As for how to define a sense of mission, or a life with purpose? Dr. Shiba said that a sense of mission may be a passion for changing society, or showing a responsible attitude towards a certain group or family members; a purposeful life may be taking care of pets, plants, or making long-term donations to a certain social welfare unit. As long as a task can drive an individual to perform a specific behavior, it has certain benefits for mental health.
“As noted in American surgeon Atul Gawande’s book Being Mortal, giving a plant to care for a sanatorium patient is an act of adding purpose to your life. According to sanatorium sources, patients who care for plants often Live longer than patients without goals.”
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In fact, past studies published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have stated that living a purposeful life is related to the display of five health behaviors, namely not smoking or quitting smoking, physical exercise, light drinking or never drinking, Normal sleep versus low BMI. Participants who followed a purposeful life were less likely to suffer from depression and had a significantly reduced risk of death from cancer, heart disease or stroke.
Research shows that people with a highly purposeful life are usually more likely to recover from stress and emotions more quickly. They also show a stronger ability to suppress impulses and believe that they are more efficient at work and study. Therefore, people with high goals may avoid being impulsive or indulging in unhealthy behaviors and replace bad habits with healthy eating and exercise, even if these behaviors are not initially attractive.
In addition, the behavioral pattern of setting goals can enable individuals to make choices that are more beneficial to their physical health. For example, when faced with competing decisions (such as whether to take the stairs or take the elevator), people with higher goals experienced less neural conflict and were more receptive to health advice. Therefore, high-goal actors may be more inclined to make healthier behavioral decisions. However, research also shows that these explanations are based on theory and preliminary evidence and need to be confirmed by more future research.
Source:
Sense of Purpose in Life and Five Health Behaviors in Older Adults
WELL-BEING Higher Sense of Purpose May Be Linked to Mortality Risk
Purpose in life and 8-year mortality by gender and race/ethnicity among older adults in the US
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