Older adults who feel their lives have purpose may live longer, study suggests

Reuters (5/24, Carroll) reported new data suggest that older adults “who feel their life has purpose may be less likely to die from heart, circulatory and digestive diseases and more likely to live longer.” A study following “nearly 7,000 people over age 50 for more than a decade” indicates that people who ranked their purposes in life lower than those who felt they have a greater purpose “were 2.43 times more likely to have died by the end of the study.” The findings appear in the journal JAMA Network Open.