• DOI:10.1097/PSY.0b013e31817e7e64
• Corpus ID: 10483513

Sense of Life Worth Living (Ikigai) and Mortality in Japan: Ohsaki Study

@article{Sone2008SenseOL,
  title={Sense of Life Worth Living (Ikigai) and Mortality in Japan: Ohsaki Study},
  author={Toshimasa Sone and Naoki Nakaya and Kaori Ohmori and Taichi Shimazu and Mizuka Higashiguchi and Masako Kakizaki and Nobutaka Kikuchi and Shinichi Kuriyama and Ichiro Tsuji},
  journal={Psychosomatic Medicine},
  year={2008},
  volume={70},
  pages={709-715}
}

• T. Sone, N. Nakaya, +6 authors I. Tsuji
• Published 1 July 2008
• Medicine
• Psychosomatic Medicine

Objective: To investigate the association between the sense of “life worth living (ikigai)” and the cause-specific mortality risk. The psychological factors play important roles in morbidity and mortality risks. However, the association between the negative psychological factors and the risk of mortality is inconclusive. Methods: The Ohsaki Study, a prospective cohort study, was initiated on 43,391 Japanese adults. To assess if the subjects found a sense of ikigai, they were asked the question, “Do you have ikigai in your life?” We used Cox regression analysis to calculate the hazard ratio of the all-cause and cause-specific mortality according to the sense of ikigai categories. Results: Over 7 years’ follow-up, 3048 of the subjects died. The risk of all-cause mortality was significantly higher among the subjects who did not find a sense of ikigai as compared with that in the subjects who found a sense of ikigai; the multivariate adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) was 1.5 (1.3–1.7). As for the cause-specific mortality, subjects who did not find a sense of ikigai were significantly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (1.6; 1.3–2.0) and external cause mortality (1.9; 1.1–3.3), but not of the cancer mortality (1.3; 1.0–1.6). Conclusions: In this prospective cohort study, subjects who did not find a sense of ikigai were associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality. The increase in mortality risk was attributable to cardiovascular disease and external causes, but not cancer. CVD = cardiovascular disease; NHI = National Health Insurance; PHC = Public Health Center; IHD = ischemic heart disease; HR = hazard ratio; CI = confidence interval; BMI = body mass index.