Meaning in life and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in the UK Biobank

Objective

To determine the association between meaning in life and all-cause and cause-specific mortality, and whether associations vary by depression or sociodemographic factors.

Methods

Participants were UK Biobank cohort members who reported on their meaning in life in the mental health assessment from October 2016 to July 2017 (N = 153,505). All-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality were identified from ICD-10 codes from national death registries through December 2022.

Results

Over the up to six-year follow-up, every standard deviation higher in meaning in life was associated with a 15 % decreased risk of death from any cause (HR = 0.87, 95 % CI = 0.85–0.90, p < .001). The association was attenuated but remained significant accounting for socioeconomic, clinical, and behavioral risk factors (HR = 0.91, 95 % CI = 0.88–0.94, p < .001). Meaning in life was associated with reduced risk of death from 7 of the 8 cause-specific deaths examined: external cause (47 %), respiratory (41 %), nervous (32 %), digestive (25 %), or circulatory (15 %) systems, COVID-19 (28 %), and cancer (8 %). Depression concurrent with the meaning assessment did not explain or moderate these associations, which indicated that meaning was similarly protective when concurrently experiencing psychological distress. The association between meaning and all-cause mortality was similar across age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status but slightly stronger among female than male participants.

Conclusion

Feeling that one's life has meaning is associated with lower risk of mortality, particularly causes of death due to the respiratory system, nervous system, or COVID-19. Given that meaning in life can be modified through intervention, future research could address whether it could be a useful target of intervention.