Purpose in life and concurrent and incident fatigue

Fatigue, the experience of extreme tiredness, is common and associated with poor health outcomes and worse quality of life. The present study examines purpose in life and the likelihood of concurrent fatigue and risk of developing fatigue over time. Participants from the Health and Retirement Study (<i>N</i> = 6,865) reported on their purpose in life and fatigue concurrently and their fatigue again every four years up to 12 years later. Controlling for sociodemographic covariates, higher purpose in life was associated with lower likelihood of concurrent fatigue (OR = .65, 95% CI = .61, .69, <i>p</i> < .001) and lower risk of incident fatigue over follow-up (HR = .79, 95% CI = .75, .84, <i>p</i> < .001). Controlling for disease burden, smoking, and physical activity attenuated these associations by 14% and 6%, respectively, but the associations remained significant (<i>p</i> < .001). The associations were also independent of and not moderated by depression, which indicated that purpose is protective even when experiencing elevated distress. These associations were not moderated by age, sex, race, ethnicity, or education. Finally, purpose was also associated with recovery from fatigue (OR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.06, 1.41, <i>p</i> < .001) and lower risk of persistent fatigue (OR = .68, 95% CI = .63-.73, <i>p</i> < .001). Purpose in life is a psychological resource associated with lower risk of fatigue and better recovery from it. Purpose may thus be a promising intervention target to reduce and prevent fatigue.