Sutin Angelina R, Luchetti Martina, Karakose Selin, Stephan Yannick, Terracciano Antonio
Florida State University College of Medicine, United States of America.
Florida State University College of Medicine, United States of America.
J Psychosom Res. 2025 Jan;188:111971. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2024.111971. Epub 2024 Nov 10.
To determine the association between meaning in life and all-cause and cause-specific mortality, and whether associations vary by depression or sociodemographic factors.
Participants were UK Biobank cohort members who reported on their meaning in life in the mental health assessment from October 2016 to July 2017 (N = 153,505). All-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality were identified from ICD-10 codes from national death registries through December 2022.
Over the up to six-year follow-up, every standard deviation higher in meaning in life was associated with a 15 % decreased risk of death from any cause (HR = 0.87, 95 % CI = 0.85-0.90, p < .001). The association was attenuated but remained significant accounting for socioeconomic, clinical, and behavioral risk factors (HR = 0.91, 95 % CI = 0.88-0.94, p < .001). Meaning in life was associated with reduced risk of death from 7 of the 8 cause-specific deaths examined: external cause (47 %), respiratory (41 %), nervous (32 %), digestive (25 %), or circulatory (15 %) systems, COVID-19 (28 %), and cancer (8 %). Depression concurrent with the meaning assessment did not explain or moderate these associations, which indicated that meaning was similarly protective when concurrently experiencing psychological distress. The association between meaning and all-cause mortality was similar across age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status but slightly stronger among female than male participants.
Feeling that one's life has meaning is associated with lower risk of mortality, particularly causes of death due to the respiratory system, nervous system, or COVID-19. Given that meaning in life can be modified through intervention, future research could address whether it could be a useful target of intervention.
确定生活意义与全因死亡率及特定病因死亡率之间的关联，以及这种关联是否因抑郁或社会人口学因素而有所不同。
参与者为英国生物银行队列成员，他们在2016年10月至2017年7月的心理健康评估中报告了自己的生活意义（N = 153,505）。通过国家死亡登记处的ICD - 10编码确定截至2022年12月的全因死亡率和特定病因死亡率。
在长达六年的随访中，生活意义每高出一个标准差，任何原因导致的死亡风险就降低15%（风险比[HR]=0.87，95%置信区间[CI]=0.85 - 0.90，p <.001）。在考虑社会经济、临床和行为风险因素后，这种关联有所减弱但仍显著（HR = 0.91，95% CI = 0.88 - 0.94，p <.001）。生活意义与所研究的8种特定病因死亡中的7种死亡风险降低相关：外部原因（47%）、呼吸系统（41%）、神经系统（32%）、消化系统（25%）、循环系统（15%）、COVID - 19（28%）和癌症（8%）。与意义评估同时存在的抑郁并不能解释或调节这些关联，这表明在同时经历心理困扰时，生活意义同样具有保护作用。生活意义与全因死亡率之间的关联在年龄、种族和社会经济地位方面相似，但在女性参与者中比男性参与者略强。
感觉自己的生活有意义与较低的死亡风险相关，尤其是呼吸系统、神经系统或COVID - 19导致的死亡原因。鉴于生活意义可以通过干预加以改变，未来的研究可以探讨它是否可能成为一个有用的干预目标。
