Abstract
BackgroundThe national health promotion program in the twenty-first century Japan (HJ21) correlates life purpose with disease prevention, facilitating the adoption of healthy lifestyles. However, the influence of clustered healthy lifestyle practices on life purpose, within the context of this national health campaign remains uninvestigated. This study assessed the association between such practices and life purpose, in line with the HJ21.MethodsWe performed a nationwide cross-sectional survey on certified specialists in health management. Participants’ demographic information, lifestyle, and purpose in life were measured using a validated tool. The cohort was median-split into two groups based on their clustered health-related lifestyle score. The values for health-related lifestyle and purpose were compared between the two groups and the correlation between health-related lifestyle and purpose in life was measured.ResultsData from 4820 participants were analyzed. The higher-scoring health-related lifestyle group showed a significantly higher life purpose than the lower group (35.3 vs 31.4; t = 23.6, p < 0.001). There was a significant association between the scores of clustered healthy lifestyle practices and life purpose (r = 0.401, p < 0.001). The higher-scoring health-related lifestyle group achieved a higher life purpose than the lower-scoring group. This association between healthy lifestyle practices and life purpose denotes a positive and linear relationship.ConclusionsOur results suggest that individuals who have a better health-related lifestyle gain a higher sense of life purpose. In other words, a healthy lifestyle predicts a purpose in life. Our findings posit that examining the causal relationship between healthy lifestyle and purpose in life may be a more efficient approach toward health promotion.
Highlights
The national health promotion program in the twenty-first century Japan (HJ21) correlates life purpose with disease prevention, facilitating the adoption of healthy lifestyles
Several studies have investigated the implications of life purpose, and literature has shown that a strong sense of purpose in life was positively associated with positive health outcomes [1,2,3,4,5,6]
This study aimed to investigate the association between health-related lifestyles, in line with the HJ21, and purpose in life, measured with a validated tool to better understand the relational mechanisms
Summary
The national health promotion program in the twenty-first century Japan (HJ21) correlates life purpose with disease prevention, facilitating the adoption of healthy lifestyles. The influence of clustered healthy lifestyle practices on life purpose, within the context of this national health campaign remains uninvestigated. This study assessed the association between such practices and life purpose, in line with the HJ21. Several studies have investigated the implications of life purpose, and literature has shown that a strong sense of purpose in life was positively associated with positive health outcomes [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Ikigai may not be fully comparable to purpose in life, it does contain the respective concept and plays a cardinal role in yielding positive health-related outcomes [12]
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