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Cited by 142Cardiac Health and Mental HealthPsychological Well-being and Life SatisfactionHealth, psychology, and well-being

Sense of Purpose in Life and Cardiovascular Disease: Underlying Mechanisms and Future Directions

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Kim, Eric S., Delaney, Scott W., Kubzansky, Laura D.·2019·Current Cardiology Reports
DOI 10.1007/s11886-019-1222-9PMC PMC10683927
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Abstract

Purpose of review In this review, we synthesize recent research that has reported associations of a higher sense of purpose in life with reduced risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), and then explore mechanisms that might underlie these associations. Recent findings Accumulating observational and experimental evidence suggests that having a higher sense of purpose might influence CVD risk through three pathways: (1) enhancement of other psychological and social resources that buffer against the cardiotoxic effects of overwhelming stress; (2) indirect effects through health behaviors; and (3) direct effects on biological pathways. A sense of purpose in life is emerging as an independent risk factor for incident CVD. A key remaining question is whether purpose causally effects CVD risk; in the "Future Research Directions" section, we focus on work needed to establish causality and provide suggestions for next steps.

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Kim, E. S., Delaney, S. W., & Kubzansky, L. D.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Kim, Eric S.
ORCID
Venue
Current Cardiology Reports
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2019-10-31
Volume
21
Issue
11
Pages
135-135
ISSN
  • 1523-3782 (ISSN-L)
  • 1534-3170
DOI
10.1007/s11886-019-1222-9
PMC
PMC10683927
OpenAlex
W2984812529
Cited by
142
References
23
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 9
FWCI
2.13
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Current Cardiology Reports (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute on Aging (K99AG055696)
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (T32HL098048)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiac Health and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health, psychology, and well-being
Keywords
sense of purpose in life, cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular risk factors, psychological resources, social resources, stress buffering, health behavior, biological pathways, causal inference, psychocardiology
MeSH terms
Cardiovascular Diseases, Goals, Humans, Motivation, Risk Factors, Stress, Psychological, Health Behavior, Intention

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