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Purpose in life and slow walking speed: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations

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Abstract

The present research examines the association between purpose in life – a component of well-being defined as the feeling that one’s life is goal-oriented and has direction – and slow walking speed and the risk of developing slow walking speed over time. Participants (N = 18,825) were from three established longitudinal studies of older adults. At baseline, participants reported on their purpose in life, and interviewers measured their usual walking speed. Walking speed was measured at annual or biannual follow-up waves up to 16 years later. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to summarize the estimates from the individual studies. Every standard deviation higher in purpose in life (as a continuous measure) was associated with a lower likelihood of cross-sectional slow walking speed at baseline (meta-analytic OR = .80, 95% CI = .77–.83). Among participants who did not have slow walking speed at baseline (n = 8,448), every standard deviation higher purpose in life was associated with a lower likelihood of developing slow walking speed over the up to 16 years of follow-up (meta-analytic HR = .93, 95% CI = .89–.96). Physical activity and disease burden accounted for 25% and 14% of the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations, respectively. The associations were independent of age, sex, race, ethnicity, and education and not moderated by these factors. Higher purpose in life is associated with a lower risk of slow walking speed and a lower risk of developing slow walking speed over time. Purpose in life is a psychological resource that may help to support aspects of physical function, such as walking speed, and may help support better function with age.

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Data availability

Data are available to the public from the parent studies. HRS data are availble from https://hrs.isr.umich.edu, NHATS data are available from https://www.nhats.org, and ELSA data are available from https://www.elsaproject.ac.uk/.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the parent studies whose public data made this work possible: The Health and Retirement Study is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA-U01AG009740) and conducted by the University of Michigan. The National Health and Aging Trends Study is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (grant number U01AG032947) through a cooperative agreement with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing is funded by the National Institute of Aging [grants 2RO1AG7644-01A1 and 2RO1AG017644] and a consortium of UK government departments coordinated by the Office for National Statistics. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the parent studies or funders.

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01AG074573. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The funder had no role in study design, analysis, interpretation, preparation of the manuscript for publication, or the decision to publish.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florida State University College of Medicine, Tallahassee, FL, 32306, USA

    Angelina R. Sutin, Sabrina Cajuste, Martina Luchetti & Antonio Terracciano

  2. Euromov, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Yannick Stephan

  3. Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Tiia Kekäläinen

Authors
  1. Angelina R. Sutin
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  2. Sabrina Cajuste
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  3. Yannick Stephan
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  4. Martina Luchetti
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  5. Tiia Kekäläinen
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  6. Antonio Terracciano
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Contributions

Study concept and design: all authors. Data analysis: Angelina Sutin and Antonio Terracciano. Writing the manuscript: Angelina Sutin. Editing subsequent drafts: all authors. All authors approved the submission of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Angelina R. Sutin.

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Sutin, A.R., Cajuste, S., Stephan, Y. et al. Purpose in life and slow walking speed: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations. GeroScience 46, 3377–3386 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-024-01073-8

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