| Boyle et al., 20091616 Boyle PA, Barnes LL, Buchman AS, Bennett DA. Purpose in life is associated with mortality among community-dwelling older persons. Psychosomatic medicine 2009; 71(5):574-579.; USA |
To evaluate the association between PiL, health conditions, and mortality in the elderly. |
RMAP and MARS: 1,238 older persons (µ age = 75 ± 7.8) without dementia at baseline (BL), with follow-up 5 years later. |
| Boyle et al., 20102525 Boyle PA, Buchman AS, Barnes LL, Bennett DA. Effect of a purpose in life on risk of incident Alzheimer disease and mild cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older persons. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2010; 67(3):304-310.; USA |
To test the hypothesis that the higher the level of PiL in older persons, the lower is the risk for MCI and AD. |
RMAP: 951 elderly without dementia at BL, with 7 annual follow-up measurements, when the levels of incident MCI and changes in cognitive function were also evaluated. |
| Boyle et al., 20102626 Boyle PA, Buchman AS, Bennett DA. Purpose in life is associated with a reduced risk of incident disability among community-dwelling older persons. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2010; 18(12):1093-1102.; USA |
To test the hypothesis that the higher the level of PiL, the lower is the risk of disability occurring in older persons without dementia. |
RMAP: 970 elderly without dementia. Baseline measurements and annual follow-ups. |
| Boyle et al., 20122727 Boyle PA, Buchman AS, Wilson RS, Yu L, Schneider JA, Bennett DA. Effect of purpose in life on the relation between Alzheimer disease pathologic changes on cognitive function in advanced age. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2012; 69(5):499-505.; USA |
To test the hypothesis that PiL reduces the deleterious effects of pathological changes caused by AD on cognition in old age. |
RMAP: 246 participants without dementia at BL with annual follow-ups. |
| Yu et al., 20152828 Yu L, Boyle PA, Wilson RS, Levine SR, Schneider JA, Bennett DA. Purpose in life and cerebral infarcts in community-dwelling older people. Stroke 2015; 46(4):1071-1076.; USA |
To test the hypothesis that higher levels of PiL are associated with lower risk for stroke. |
RMAP: 43 elderly without dementia, with annual clinical exams and postmortem cerebral autopsy. |
| Wilson et al., 20182929 Wilson RS, Capuano AW, James BD, Amofa P, Arvanitakis Z, Shah R, Bennett DA, Boyle PA. Purpose in life and hospitalization for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions in old age. Amer J Ger Psych 2018; 26(3):364-374.; USA |
To test the hypothesis that high levels of PiL in ambulatory patients are associated with a lower risk of subsequent hospitalizations. |
RMAP: 805 participants initially with µage = 81.1 ± 6.8, without dementia. Medicare Records (1999-2010). |
| Kim et al., 20133030 Kim ES, Sun JK, Park N, Kubzansky LD, Peterson C. Purpose in life and reduced risk of myocardial infarction among older U.S. adults with coronary heart disease: a two-year follow-up. J Behav Med 2013; 36(2):124-133.; USA |
To investigate the extent to which PiL is associated with myocardial infarction in adults and older persons with coronary heart disease. |
HRS: 1,546 participants from the 8th (2006) and 9th (2008) waves; 50 years +, coronary disease at baseline. |
| Kim et al., 20133131 Kim ES, Sun JK, Park N, Peterson C. Purpose in life and reduced incidence of stroke in older adults: 'The Health and Retirement Study'. J Psychosom Res 2013; 74(5):427-432.; USA |
To determine whether PiL is related to reduction of the incidence of stroke. |
HRS: 6,379 participants of the HRS who have never had a stroke (50 years and over). Data from the 8th (2006), 9th (2008) and 10th wave (2010) and data on the circumstances of death (of the deceased person). |
| Kim et al., 20143232 Kim ES, Strecher VJ, Ryff CD. Purpose in life and use of preventive health care services. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2014; 111(46):16331-16336.; USA |
To investigate the associations between PiL and use of preventive services and between PiL and hospitalizations. |
HRS: 7,168 participants of the HRS (50 years and +), followed-up for 6 years. |
| Kim et al., 20153333 Kim ES, Hershner SD, Strecher VJ. Purpose in life and incidence of sleep disturbances. J Behav Med 2015; 38(3):590-597.; USA |
To test the hypothesis that PiL is associated with a reduction in the incidence of sleep disorders. |
HRS: 4,144 participants without or with minimal sleep disturbances at baseline (2006) participated in a follow-up study (2010). |
| Kim et al., 20173434 Kim ES, Kawachi I, Chen Y, Kubzansky LD. Association between purpose in life and objective measures of physical function in older adults. JAMA Psychiatry 2017; 74(10):1039-1045.; USA |
To evaluate whether a high level of PiL in older patients with good physical functioning is associated with a lower risk for low grip strength and slow gait. |
HRS: Follow-up measurements (2006 and 2010); µage men = 70.8 ± 6.5; µage women = 63.0 ± 8.2.
|
| Schaefer et al, 20133535 Schaefer SM, Morozink Boylan J, van Reekum CM, Lapate RC, Norris CJ, Ryff CD, Davidson RJ. Purpose in life predicts better emotional recovery from negative stimuli. PloS one 2013; 8(11): e80329.; USA |
To test whether PiL is associated with better emotional recovery after exposure to negative stimuli. |
MIDUS II: Experimental study with a sub-sample from 2006 (n = 584). Randomized presentation of 90 figures with positive, negative and neutral emotional stimuli and attention task randomly interrupted by distractors. |
| Burrow et al., 20143636 Burrow AL, Sumner R, Ong AD. Perceived change in life satisfaction and daily negative affect: The moderating role of purpose in life. J Happiness Stud 2014; 15(3):579-592.; USA |
To test the moderating role of PiL among negative affections in daily life and current, past and future satisfaction. |
MIDUS II: Secondary data analysis of 1,745 participants (µage = 56.51 ± 12.08). |
| Hill, Turiano, 20143737 Hill PL, Turiano NA. Purpose in life as a predictor of mortality across adulthood. Psychol Sci 2014; 25(7):1482-1486.; USA |
To investigate whether PiL promotes longevity in adulthood and old age. |
MIDUS: 6,163 adults and elderly individuals aged 20 to 75 years (µage = 46.9 ± 12.9), followed-up for 14 years. |
| Zilioli et al., 20153838 Zilioli S, Slatcher RB, Ong AD, Gruenewald TL. Purpose in life predicts allostatic load ten years later. J Psychosom Res 2015; 79(5):451-457.; USA |
To investigate the prospective associations between PiL and allostatic load over 10 years. |
MIDUS II: 985 adults and older persons participating in the Biomarker Sub-Study conducted at the time of the second wave of this study (µage 46.14 ± 11.7). |
| Hill et al., 20163939 Hill PL, Turiano NA, Mroczek DK, Burrow AL. The value of a purposeful life: Sense of purpose predicts greater income and net worth. J Res Pers 2016; 65:38-42.; USA |
To examine PiL as a predictor of family income and net worth. |
MIDUS: 7,108 participants recruited in 1995-1996 and reassessed in 2004 (MIDUS I) and 2006 (MIDUS II) 25 to 74 years of age; µage = 46.5 ± 13. |
| Lewis et al., 20174040 Lewis NA, Turiano NA, Payne BR, Hill PL. Purpose in life and cognitive functioning in adulthood. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 2017; 24(6):662-671.; USA |
To test the associations between PiL and episodic memory, executive functioning, and global cognition. |
MIDUS II: 3,489 participants (µage = 56.3 ± 12.27, varying from 32 to 84 years, with complete records of PiL and cognitive measures. |
| Hill et al., 20184141 Hill PL, Turiano NA, Burrow L. Early life adversity as a predictor of sense of purpose during adulthood. Int J Behav Dev 2018; 42(1):143-147.; USA |
To examine whether adversities experienced in childhood and adolescence predict a decrease in the sense of PiL in adult life and in old age. |
MIDUS II: 3,385 participants (2005-2006) with complete information on sociodemographic data, adversities before age 18, and PiL in MIDUS I. |
| Hill et al., 20154242 Hill PL, Turiano NA, Spiro A, Mroczek DK. Understanding inter-individual variability in purpose in life: Longitudinal findings from the VA Normative Aging Study. Psychol Aging 2015; 30(3):529-533.; USA |
To know the characteristics of men with greater chance to present a high level of PiL and a decrease in PiL over time. |
NAS: 587 elderly from the 2003 (µage = 74.1 ± 6.2) and 2006 (n = 386) follow-ups. |
| Windsor et al., 20154343 Windsor TD, Curtis RG, Luszcz MA. Sense of purpose as a psychological resource for aging well. Devel Psych 2015; 51(7):975-986.; Australia |
To examine associations between individual differences in the sense of PiL and well-being indicated by health, cognition and depressive symptoms. |
ALSA: 1,475 participants (µage = 77.06 ± 6.27) evaluated in 6 moments (1992 to 2010). |
| Ko et al., 20164444 Ko HJ, Hooker K, Geldhof GJ, McAdams DP. Longitudinal purpose in life trajectories: Examining predictors in late midlife. Psychol Aging 2016; 31(7):693-698.; USA |
To examine changes in PiL over 5 years. |
FLSA: Exploratory study with 163 participants (µ age = 56.37 ± 1.00) (from the 5 waves). |
| Tomioka et al., 20164545 Tomioka K, Kurumatani N, Hosoi H. Relationship of having hobbies and a purpose in life with mortality, activities of daily living, and instrumental activities of daily living among community-dwelling elderly adults. J Epidemiol 2016; 26(7):361-370.; Japão |
To investigate the relation between maintenance of pleasurable hobbies and PiL with mortality and declining independence 42 months later. |
Prospective data of older persons aged 65 years and over, with an increased risk of death (n = 1853), a decline in BADL (n = 1254) and IADL (n = 1162). Mortality analysis between 2011 and 2014. |
| Sano, Kyougoku, 20154646 Sano N, Kyougoku M. An analysis of structural relationship among achievement motive on social participation, purpose in life, and role expectations among community dwelling elderly attending day services. Peer J 2016; 4: e1655.; Japão |
To test the model of structural relations among achievement motive, PiL, social participation and role expectations. |
Descriptive cross-sectional study: 281 elderly (µ = 77.1 ± 8.7). |
| Polenick et al., 20184747 Polenick CA, Kales HC, Birditt KS. Perceptions of purpose in life within spousal care dyads: Associations with emotional and physical caregiving difficulties. Ann Behav Med 2018; 52(1):77-87.; USA |
To investigate associations between PiL of caregivers and care recipients and the emotional and physical difficulties of caregivers. |
Descriptive cross-sectional study: 315 spouses (65 years +) caregivers of partners with functional disability (µ marriage time = 42.75 ± 17.81). NSOC and NHATS. |
| Hooker, Masters, 20164848 Hooker SA, Masters KS. Purpose in life is associated with physical activity measured by accelerometer. J Health Psychol 2016; 21(6):962-971.; USA |
To examine the relationship between PiL and level of physical activity measured by an accelerometer. |
Descriptive cross-sectional study: convenience sample (n = 104; µage = 35.5 ± 15.5, varying from 18 to 80 years). |
| Mak, 20115151 Mak W. Self-reported goal pursuit and purpose in life among people with dementia. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2011; 66(2):177-184.; USA |
To examine the relationship between goal compliance and PiL, as reported by people with dementia. |
Experimental study: 91 elderly (µage = 75.28 ± 9.23); 46 assigned by lot to the experimental group (EG) that carried out an artistic activity oriented to the goal. Participants of the control group (CG) made a creative drawing of their choice. |
| Burrow et al., 20145252 Burrow AL, Stanley M, Sumner R, Hill PL. Purpose in life as a resource for increasing comfort with ethnic diversity. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2014; 40(11):1507-1516.; USA |
To explore the association between PiL and comfort of living in contexts with ethnic diversity. |
Three studies with white adults, one of them experimental: 1) investigation of the level of PiL and comfort with ethnic diversity; 2) exposure to demographic projections; and 3) essay on demographic projections (EG) or neutral theme (CG) + test of comfort with ethnic heterogeneity. |
