Association Between Purpose in Life and Glucose Control Among Older Adults
Open accessAbstract
Background: Greater purpose in life is associated with lower rates of certain chronic diseases. Whether purpose in life can protect against development of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes is unknown. Purpose: To examine the association between purpose in life and blood glucose control among adults ≥50 years. Methods: We conducted a longitudinal cohort study of 3,907 participants of the Health and Retirement Study who at baseline did not have type 2 diabetes or prediabetes. Baseline purpose in life was measured using the Ryff and Keyes' Scales of Psychological Well-Being and grouped into tertiles (high, medium, and low). We used multivariable linear regression to examine the association between baseline purpose in life and HbA1c over 4 years. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the association between baseline purpose and incident prediabetes or type 2 diabetes over the same period. Results: After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, body mass index, physical activity, and physical and mental health factors, HbA1c was 0.07 percentage points lower among participants with high purpose than those with low purpose (95% confidence interval [CI] -0.12 to -0.02; p = .011). Participants with high purpose had lower odds of developing prediabetes or type 2 diabetes than those with low purpose (adjusted odds ratio 0.78; 95% CI 0.62 to 0.98; p = .037). Conclusions: Among older adults, greater purpose in life is associated with a lower incidence of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. Strategies to promote greater purpose in life should be tested as a part of type 2 diabetes prevention efforts.
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Adults with a greater sense of purpose have more favorable lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors such as less smoking, more physical activity, less alcohol and substance abuse, and better glucose control.
“Similar to optimistic adults, adults with a greater sense of purpose have more favorable lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors such as less smoking, 70 more physical activity, 30 less alcohol and substance abuse, and better glucose control. 71”
From Psychological Health, Well-Being, and the Mind-Heart-Body Connection: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association (2021) · cites this paper as [71]
The Results and Discussion (pages unavailable in our copy) support the claim of better glucose control: among older adults with normal baseline glucose, higher purpose was associated with lower HbA1c and lower incidence of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes at four years. Citation 71 follows both the alcohol/substance-abuse and glucose-control clauses, but our copy does not support the alcohol or substance-abuse claim. The smoking and physical-activity clauses have separate citations in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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References 48 · Cited by 71
- Authors
- Hafez, D., Heisler, M., Choi, H., Ankuda, C. K., Winkelman, T., & Kullgren, J. T.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hafez, Dina
- Venue
- Annals of Behavioral Medicine
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2018-02-10
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 309-318
- ISSN
- 0742-5554 (ISSN-L)
- 0883-6612
- 1532-4796
- PMC
- PMC6082637
- OpenAlex
- W2792220276
- Cited by
- 71
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 7.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Annals of Behavioral Medicine (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (NIA U01AG009740)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diabetes Management and Education
- Keywords
- meaning of life, glycemic control, HbA1c, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, older adults, psychological well-being, diabetes prevention, Health and Retirement Study
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Health Surveys, Glycated Hemoglobin, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Personal Satisfaction, Prediabetic State, United States, Incidence
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