{"id":176015,"date":"2025-08-26T03:51:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T03:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/176015\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T03:51:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T03:51:20","slug":"having-a-purpose-in-life-linked-to-lower-dementia-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/176015\/","title":{"rendered":"Having a Purpose in Life Linked to Lower Dementia Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Summary: <\/strong>A new study of over 13,000 adults found that having a strong sense of purpose in life is linked to a reduced risk of dementia. Those with higher purpose were 28% less likely to develop cognitive impairment, even when accounting for genetic risk and other factors.<\/p>\n<p>The effect was consistent across racial and ethnic groups and modestly delayed the onset of decline by more than a month over eight years. The findings suggest that building purpose through relationships, goals, or meaningful activities may help keep the brain resilient with age.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Lower Risk:<\/strong> Higher life purpose reduced dementia risk by 28%.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Broad Benefit:<\/strong> Protective effects held across racial, ethnic, and genetic risk groups.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Free &amp; Accessible:<\/strong> Purpose offers a safe, low-cost protective factor compared to drugs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong>UC Davis<\/p>\n<p><strong>Research into\u00a0Blue Zones\u00a0\u2014 regions of the world where people tend to live longer \u2014 shows that having\u00a0a sense of purpose in life\u00a0may help people live longer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now, new research from UC Davis shows that having a sense of purpose in life may have another benefit as people age: reducing the risk of dementia.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0new study, published in\u00a0The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, followed over 13,000 adults aged 45 and older for up to 15 years.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers found that people who reported a higher sense of purpose in life were about 28% less likely to develop cognitive impairment \u2014 including mild cognitive impairment and dementia.<\/p>\n<p>The protective effect of having a purpose was seen across racial and ethnic groups. It also remained significant even after accounting for education, depression and the\u00a0APOE4\u00a0gene, which is a known risk factor for Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Purpose in life helps the brain stay resilient<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur findings show that having a sense of purpose helps the brain stay resilient with age,\u201d said\u00a0Aliza Wingo,\u00a0senior author and professor in the\u00a0UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven for people with a genetic risk for Alzheimer\u2019s disease, sense of purpose was linked to a later onset and lower likelihood of developing dementia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Participants were not specifically asked about the activities that gave their life purpose. Previous studies on aging, though, have found a wide rang of activities give older adults a sense of life purpose, sometimes referred to as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.japan.go.jp\/kizuna\/2022\/03\/ikigai_japanese_secret_to_a_joyful_life.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ikigai<\/a>.\u201d These include:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Relationships: Caring for family, spending time with grandchildren or supporting a spouse or friend.<\/li>\n<li>Work<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>or<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>volunteering: Continuing professional work, mentoring or contributing to community causes.<\/li>\n<li>Spirituality or faith: Religious beliefs, spiritual practices or involvement in faith-based communities.<\/li>\n<li>Personal goals: Pursuing hobbies, learning new skills or setting and achieving personal milestones.<\/li>\n<li>Helping others: Acts of kindness, philanthropy, caregiving or advocacy work.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Purpose delays onset of cognitive decline<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Researchers also found that people with higher purpose tended to experience cognitive decline later than those with lower purpose. On average, the delay in onset was very modest \u2014 about 1.4 months over an eight-year period, after considering the effects of age, education, depressive symptoms, and genetic risk. However, it is meaningful when compared to current treatments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile medications like\u00a0lecanemab\u00a0and\u00a0donanemab\u00a0can modestly delay symptoms of cognitive impairment in Alzheimer\u2019s disease, they come with risks and costs,\u201d said Nicholas C. Howard, first author and public health researcher at UC Davis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPurpose in life is free, safe and accessible. It\u2019s something people can build through relationships, goals and meaningful activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Methods and limitations of study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Participants in the study were part of the\u00a0Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative survey funded by the\u00a0National Institute on Aging. All had normal cognitive health at the beginning of the study.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers used a seven-item survey from the\u00a0Ryff Measures of Psychological Well-being.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Participants had six possible responses (from \u201cstrongly agree\u201d to \u201cstrongly disagree\u201d) for statements such as: \u201cI am an active person in carrying out the plans I set for myself\u201d and \u201cI have a sense of direction and purpose in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Their answers were scored and averaged to obtain a well-being number between 1 and 6, with higher values indicating a strong sense of purpose in life. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Their cognitive health was tracked using a telephone-based test every two years.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers noted the study has many strengths, including the size of the population studied. However, a key limitation is that although there was an association, the study did not prove higher levels of purpose caused the lowered rates of dementia.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Findings support role of psychological well-being<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Still, the findings support the idea that psychological well-being plays a key role in healthy aging, said\u00a0Thomas Wingo, a co-author of the study and a professor and neurologist at UC Davis Health. Wingo hopes future studies will explore whether purpose-building interventions can help prevent dementia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s exciting about this study is that people may be able to \u2018think\u2019 themselves into better health. Purpose in life is something we can nurture,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s never too early \u2014 or too late \u2014 to start thinking about what gives your life meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>About this neurology and dementia research news<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\"><strong>Author: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/neurosciencenews.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#513d34393e26302335113934303d25397f243235302738227f343524\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Lisa Howard<\/a><br \/><strong>Source:<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/health.ucdavis.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><strong> <\/strong>UC Davis<\/a><br \/><strong>Contact: <\/strong>Lisa Howard \u2013 UC Davis<br \/><strong>Image: <\/strong>The image is credited to Neuroscience News<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\"><strong>Original Research: <\/strong>Closed access.<br \/>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jagp.2025.05.009\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Life Purpose Lowers Risk for Cognitive Impairment in a United States Population-Based Cohort<\/a>\u201d by Aliza Wingo et al. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry<\/p>\n<p><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Life Purpose Lowers Risk for Cognitive Impairment in a United States Population-Based Cohort<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Objective<\/p>\n<p>We investigated whether sense of purpose in life (PiL) is associated with a lower risk for and delayed onset of developing cognitive impairment in a diverse US population-based cohort.<\/p>\n<p>Methods<\/p>\n<p>Participants from the Health and Retirement Study aged 45 or older with normal cognitive performance at baseline and \u2265 2 subsequent objective cognitive assessments were included. Cognitive performance was objectively assessed biennially using the modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (mTICS).<\/p>\n<p>Cognitive impairment was defined as having two consecutive visits with mTICS scores below a psychometrically validated threshold consistent with mild cognitive impairment or dementia. PiL was assessed at baseline using a seven-item questionnaire. Cox Proportional Hazards was modelled to examine the association between PiL and cognitive impairment. Restricted Mean Survival Times was calculated to estimate delay in onset age for cognitive impairment.<\/p>\n<p>Results<\/p>\n<p>Of 13,765 participants, 1,820 (13%) developed cognitive impairment during follow-up (median of 8 years and up to 15 years). Those with higher PiL had significantly lower risk for developing cognitive impairment compared to those with lower PiL after adjusting for sex, baseline age, educational attainment, average depressive symptom score, and race\/ethnicity (HR = 0.72, 95% CI: [0.63\u20130.82]).<\/p>\n<p>This association remained significant after adjusting for\u00a0APOE E4\u00a0in addition to the above covariates in a subset with genotyping data. Furthermore, participants with higher PiL had a later onset age for cognitive impairment compared to participants with lower PiL after accounting for these covariates.<\/p>\n<p>Conclusion<\/p>\n<p>Higher PiL was associated with approximately 28% lower risk for developing cognitive impairment and a later onset of cognitive impairment across the studied ethnic\/racial groups, even among those with genetic risk for dementia. These findings indicate that fostering a sense of life purpose has the potential to reduce cognitive impairment and dementia risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary: A new study of over 13,000 adults found that having a strong sense of purpose in life&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":176016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[10263,827,2454,16875,632,210,829,912,831,99991,99992,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-176015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-alzheimers-disease","9":"tag-brain-research","10":"tag-cognition","11":"tag-cognitive-decline","12":"tag-dementia","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-neurobiology","15":"tag-neurology","16":"tag-neuroscience","17":"tag-sense-of-purpose","18":"tag-uc-davis","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115093037702152538","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}