Angelina R Sutin, Martina Luchetti, Yannick Stephan, Brice Canada, Antonio Terracciano
{"title":"Purpose in Life and Risk of Falls: A Meta-Analysis of Cross-Sectional and Prospective Associations.","authors":"Angelina R Sutin, Martina Luchetti, Yannick Stephan, Brice Canada, Antonio Terracciano","doi":"10.1177/23337214241236039","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>Background and Aim:</b> Purpose in life is an aspect of well-being that is associated with better health outcomes in older adulthood. We examine the association between purpose in life and likelihood of a recent fall and risk of an incident fall over time. <b>Methods:</b> Purpose in life and falls were reported concurrently and falls were reported again up to 16 years later in four established longitudinal studies of older adults (total <i>N</i> = 25,418). <b>Results:</b> A random-effects meta-analysis of the four samples indicated that purpose was associated with a 14% lower likelihood of having fallen recently at baseline (meta-analytic <i>OR</i> = 0.88, 95% CI [0.84-0.92]). Among participants who reported no falls at baseline (<i>N</i> = 15,632), purpose was associated with a nearly 10% lower risk of an incident fall over the up to 16-year follow-up (meta-analytic HR = 0.92, 95% CI [0.90-0.94]). These associations were independent of age, sex, race, ethnicity, and education, were not moderated by these factors, and persisted controlling for physical activity and disease burden. <b>Conclusion and Recommendations:</b> Purpose in life is a meaningful aspect of well-being that may be useful to identify individuals at risk for falling, particularly among individuals without traditional risk factors, and be a target of intervention to reduce fall risk.</p>","PeriodicalId":52146,"journal":{"name":"Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10919135/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23337214241236039","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background and Aim: Purpose in life is an aspect of well-being that is associated with better health outcomes in older adulthood. We examine the association between purpose in life and likelihood of a recent fall and risk of an incident fall over time. Methods: Purpose in life and falls were reported concurrently and falls were reported again up to 16 years later in four established longitudinal studies of older adults (total N = 25,418). Results: A random-effects meta-analysis of the four samples indicated that purpose was associated with a 14% lower likelihood of having fallen recently at baseline (meta-analytic OR = 0.88, 95% CI [0.84-0.92]). Among participants who reported no falls at baseline (N = 15,632), purpose was associated with a nearly 10% lower risk of an incident fall over the up to 16-year follow-up (meta-analytic HR = 0.92, 95% CI [0.90-0.94]). These associations were independent of age, sex, race, ethnicity, and education, were not moderated by these factors, and persisted controlling for physical activity and disease burden. Conclusion and Recommendations: Purpose in life is a meaningful aspect of well-being that may be useful to identify individuals at risk for falling, particularly among individuals without traditional risk factors, and be a target of intervention to reduce fall risk.
期刊介绍:
Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine (GGM) is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed open access journal where scholars from a variety of disciplines present their work focusing on the psychological, behavioral, social, and biological aspects of aging, and public health services and research related to aging. The journal addresses a wide variety of topics related to health services research in gerontology and geriatrics. GGM seeks to be one of the world’s premier Open Access outlets for gerontological academic research. As such, GGM does not limit content due to page budgets or thematic significance. Papers will be subjected to rigorous peer review but will be selected solely on the basis of whether the research is sound and deserves publication. By virtue of not restricting papers to a narrow discipline, GGM facilitates the discovery of the connections between papers.