Religion is a noted source of a sense of purpose. A study relating sense of purpose in life to longevity found that those with the lowest ‘life purpose’ had a two and a half times greater chance of death in the five-year period of the study than those with the highest. This finding survived adjustments for body mass index, level of physical activity, alcohol consumption, chronic illness, and even smoking status. The finding is in line with those from a number of previous studies in both East and West.
