Sense of purpose is linked to reduced risk of dementia

Woman gardening - Credit: Wavebreakmedia on iStock - Feeling a sense of purpose or meaning in life is associated with a lower risk of dementia years later, finds a new review of evidence led by UCL researchers. The academics were looking at whether positive psychological constructs, which also included positive mood and optimism and found that purpose and meaning in life were the key factors consistently associated with reduced risk, they report in Ageing Research Reviews . Positive mood was not associated with reduced risk, but optimism may be - there was just not enough evidence to properly evaluate this. The researchers reviewed evidence from eight previously published papers which included data from 62,250 older adults across three continents. They found that higher purpose or meaning in life was significantly associated with a reduced risk of multiple cognitive impairment outcomes, including dementia and mild cognitive impairment; notably, a sense of purpose is associated with a 19% reduced rate of clinically significant cognitive impairment. Importantly, this was not the case for other positive psychological constructs, for example, simply having a positive mood state. Previous evidence suggests that purpose in life may hold benefits to recovering from stressful evidence and is associated with reduced inflammation in the brain, both of which may be associated with reduced risk of dementia.