Background: Older adults often experience an increase in low-grade chronic inflammation. Purpose in life could act as a protective factor as it is associated with beneficial health outcomes. Purpose in life may exert part of its adaptive function by promoting persistence in goal pursuit. During older adulthood, however, when many individuals experience an increase in intractable stressors and declining resources, the adaptive function of purpose could become reduced. Purpose: We examined whether the association between inter- and intra-individual differences in purpose in life and chronic inflammation differed across older adulthood. Method: We assessed four waves of data among 129 older adults (63-91 years old) across 6 years. Results: Hierarchical linear modeling demonstrated that within-person increases in purpose in life predicted reduced levels of chronic inflammation in early old age (25th percentile or 73 years, coefficient = -.016, p < .01), but not in advanced old age (75th percentile or 81 years, coefficient = .002, p = .67). Between-person differences in purpose were not related to chronic inflammation. Conclusions: These results suggest that greater within-person increases in purpose may protect health processes particularly in early old age but become less effective in advanced old age.

中文翻译：

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老年期生活目的的变化和低度慢性炎症。

背景：老年人经常会出现低度慢性炎症的增加。人生目标可以作为一种保护因素，因为它与有益的健康结果相关。人生目标可以通过促进对目标追求的坚持来发挥其部分适应性功能。然而，在老年时期，当许多人遇到棘手的压力源增加和资源减少时，目标的适应性功能可能会降低。目的：我们研究了个体间和个体内生活目的差异与慢性炎症之间的关联是否在成年期有所不同。方法：我们评估了 6 年来 129 名老年人（63-91 岁）的四波数据。结果：分层线性模型表明，人体内生活目标的增加可预测老年早期慢性炎症水平的降低（第 25 个百分位数或 73 岁，系数 = -.016，p < .01），但在老年时则不然（第 75 个百分位数或 81 年，系数 = .002，p = .67）。人与人之间的目的差异与慢性炎症无关。结论：这些结果表明，个人目标的更大程度提高可能会保护健康过程，特别是在老年时期，但在老年时效果会减弱。