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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Purpose in life over a five-year period
— a longitudinal study in a very old population | | Author(s) | Pia Hedberg, Christine Brulin, Lena Aléx, Yngve Gustafson |
| Journal title | International Psychogeriatrics, vol 23, no 5, June 2011 |
| Pages | pp 806-813 |
| Source | http://www.journals.cambridge.org/ipg |
| Keywords | Life satisfaction ; Quality of life ; Depression ; Octogenarians ; Nonagenarians ; Longitudinal surveys ; Sweden. |
| Annotation | Few studies have specifically examined purpose in life among very old people. The aim of this study was to examine changes in purpose in life over five years in very old men and women (aged 85 and above) and to investigate whether depressed mood, malnutrition, inactivity in daily life, or cognitive impairment increased the risk for developing low purpose in life. The study included data from 51 participants (42 women and 9 men) living in northern Sweden who completed the Purpose in Life (PIL) test once at baseline and again five years later. Overall purpose in life was shown to have decreased over five years and the decrease was significantly associated with being a woman and having depressed mood or depression at baseline. There were no differences in baseline PIL scores between depressed and not depressed, but those who had depression had significantly decreased PIL scores after five years. The authors conclude that a strong purpose in life does not seem to prevent very old people from developing depression and being depressed at baseline. Furthermore living with depression over five years is associated with a loss of purpose in life. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-110913007 A |
| Classmark | F:5HH: F:59: ENR: BBM: BBR: 3J: 76P |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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