From the Department of Psychology (Kim), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Kim) and Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness (Kim), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston; Program on Integrative Knowledge and Human Flourishing (Kim), Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Department of Psychology (Ryff) and Institute on Aging (Ryff ), University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; Department of Anesthesiology (Hassett, Brummett), Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; AARP Service, Inc (Yeh), Washington, DC; and Department of Health Behavior and Health Education (Stretcher), University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Psychosom Med. 2020 Sep;82(7):715-721. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000842.
In the United States, 28.6 million people used illicit drugs or misused prescription drugs in the last 30 days. Thus, identifying factors linked with lower likelihood of future drug misuse is an important target for research and practice. Sense of purpose in life has been linked with better behavioral and physical health outcomes. Furthermore, a higher sense of purpose may reduce the likelihood of drug misuse because it has been linked with several protective factors including enhanced ability to handle stress, higher pain tolerance, and lower impulsivity. However, the association between sense of purpose and drug misuse has been understudied. Thus, we tested whether people with a higher sense of purpose at baseline had a lower likelihood of future drug misuse 9 to 10 years later.
This study included 3535 middle-aged adults from the Midlife in the United States Study who were not misusing drugs at baseline. Using multiple logistic regression models, we assessed whether baseline purpose in life was associated with risk of misusing drugs 9 to 10 years later.
Among respondents not misusing drugs at baseline, people in the highest quartile of purpose (versus lowest quartile) had a substantially lower likelihood of future drug misuse in a model adjusting for demographic variables (odds ratio = 0.50, 95% confidence interval = 0.31-0.83). Associations remained evident after additionally adjusting for psychological distress, baseline health, and health behaviors.
A growing knowledge base suggests that a sense of purpose can be increased. Additional research is needed to evaluate sense of purpose as a novel target in the prevention and reduction of drug misuse.
在美国，过去 30 天内有 2860 万人使用过非法药物或滥用处方药物。因此，确定与未来药物滥用可能性降低相关的因素是研究和实践的重要目标。生活意义感与更好的行为和身体健康结果有关。此外，更高的生活意义感可能会降低药物滥用的可能性，因为它与包括增强应对压力的能力、更高的疼痛耐受力和更低的冲动性在内的几种保护因素有关。然而，生活意义感与药物滥用之间的关联研究还很不足。因此，我们检验了基线时生活意义感更高的人在 9 到 10 年后未来药物滥用的可能性是否更低。
这项研究包括来自美国中年生活研究的 3535 名中年成年人，他们在基线时没有滥用药物。我们使用多项逻辑回归模型，评估基线生活意义感与 9 到 10 年后药物滥用风险之间的关系。
在基线时没有滥用药物的受访者中，处于生活意义感最高四分位数（与最低四分位数相比）的人在调整人口统计学变量的模型中未来药物滥用的可能性显著降低（比值比=0.50，95%置信区间=0.31-0.83）。在另外调整心理困扰、基线健康和健康行为后，关联仍然明显。
越来越多的知识表明，生活意义感可以增强。需要进一步研究，以评估生活意义感作为预防和减少药物滥用的新目标。
