A Purpose a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Zak Muggleton, Year 3

Following a recent diagnosis of type two diabetes, your doctor will advise you to exercise more and to change your diet—it may be time to make a lifestyle change. When diagnosed with alcohol fatty liver disease, your doctor will advise you to stop drinking alcohol—a necessary lifestyle change. Or you’ve been diagnosed with COPD, and your doctor will advise you to stop smoking—A lifestyle change. So what if you were diagnosed with an risk of mortality, starting right at this moment? There is new evidence to suggest that searching for ‘purpose in life’ is the lifestyle change you may need. 

Shiba K et al have recently conducted a study that thinks a lower risk of mortality to those with a ‘purpose’ in life (Shiba K et al, 2022). So how can one define themselves as having ‘purpose?’ Perhaps this study begins to answer the age-old question—what is the meaning of life? To suggest that I can objectively answer this question would be absurd—especially as there is no such thing as objective truth, in my opinion—but a sense of ‘purpose’ could be a foundational reason that humans live.  

If one is devoid of any ‘purpose,’ due to having nothing meaningful to live for at all, then they are ‘disengaged.’ They may wake up alone, stay in their house all day, go for a short walk around the neighbourhood and then go to bed, alone. Bridget Jones in the lonely years, if you will. The rest of the population are split into three categories. They include the dabblers (those who never commit to specific purposeful activities and struggle to articulate why they are partaking in them), the dreamers (being able to dream about something purposeful and being able to articulate why, but never taking action)—yes, if you live your life dreaming of being a professional footballer and never become one, you still have purpose, however much others may oppose—and finally the group most are envious of, the purposeful (those who partake in a genuinely meaningful activity, and can articulate why they devote their time to it).  

It is also proven that, especially with the addition of this new eight year-long cohort study, there are numerous benefits to having a ‘purpose.’ These include increased optimism, hope, resilience, joy, physical health, effectiveness as a colleague in the workplace, belonging, satisfaction and finally income. (Scottsdale Community College, 2019) These features have been championed by society for many years as the ideal position to be in, especially for an adult. In my opinion, being able to obtain a few of these qualities will mean that someone is successful, but to have an even better quality of life I would argue that ‘purpose’ is an integral factor. 

Shiba K et al’s study followed over 13,000 adults, around age 50, for 8 years. Each participant had to self-reflect on whether they thought they had purpose (which is entirely subjective, and a possible flaw in the study) and they were then observed for 8 years afterward, to calculate how many people died and why. Data was also analysed to determine whether race/ethnicity and gender have an effect. Ultimately It was determined to not have an effect. Interestingly, however, there was a minimally stronger correlation in women, and this is theorized to be because ‘due to social norms, men have more of an unwillingness to seek medical help than women.’ But it is possible this could be due to confirmation bias. Overall, however, those with ‘purpose’ seemed to use preventative health services more than those who did not, which makes sense as to why they would live longer with earlier intervention. Early trials seem to suggest that group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and volunteering can increase people’s ‘purpose,’ but this has not been confirmed by any comprehensive research. 

To conclude, this is an intriguing, developing area of psychology that is not thoroughly researched yet but definitely has the potential to drastically improve the lives of those who most need it. Because after all, if all you need to do is dream, then anyone in the world is capable of finding their ‘purpose,’ they just need to be given the opportunity to. 

References

Shiba, K et al. (2022). “Purpose in life and 8-year mortality by gender and race/ethnicity among older adults in the U.S.” Preventative Medicine,.  Volume 164.

Scottsdale Community College. (2019). “Why Having a Sense of Purpose is Important.” Accessible by [https://www.scottsdalecc.edu/news/2019/why-having-sense-purpose-important#:~:text=Think%20about%20this%3A%20When%20you,Better%20physical%20health]. [Accessed on 23/11/22].