Purpose in life is associated with health outcomes among diabetic adults

Abstract

Objective: Health complications as a result of diabetes place major financial strain on individuals, financially and emotionally. The onset and severity of these complications is largely driven by patients’ behaviors, making psychosocial factors that influence behaviors key targets for interventions. One promising factor is sense of purpose, or the degree to which a person believes their life has meaning. Methods: Coordinated analysis using 12 datasets cross-sectionally and eight longitudinally (total N = 63,307) estimated the degree to which sense of purpose is associated with smoking, subjective health, and cardiovascular disease among diabetic adults. In addition, effect sizes for diabetic adults was compared to samples of non-diabetic adults, estimating whether the relationship of purpose to health is tempered by the presence of diabetes. Coordinated analysis allows for greater generalizability of results across cultures, time periods, and measurement instruments. Results: Sense of purpose was associated with higher self-rated health and lower rates of smoking and cardiovascular disease both cross-sectionally and prospectively and did not differ between diabetic and non-diabetic samples. Conclusions: These results highlight the relationship of a key individual difference, sense of purpose, to the behaviors and outcomes of diabetic adults. While more research is needed to determine the boundaries of this relationship, it seems sense of purpose may be considered in the future as a potential target for intervention. Moreover, the similarity of results across diabetic and non-diabetic samples suggests that research specifically for diabetic populations can build upon existing research on purpose using general or healthy samples.

Psychosocial factors and well-being among adults with Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease: A cross-sectional study.

“…Participants with a higher sense of purpose reported better self-rated health, less physical limitations, and less role disruptions due to their physical health (Scheier et al, 2006). Moreover, this relationship between sense of purpose and self-rated health was also present in a clinical population, individuals with diabetes, and was not moderated by diabetes status (Weston et al, 2019). This finding suggests that even individuals living with a chronic disease, disability, or health condition can benefit from sense of purpose.…”