Purpose—a cognitive process that defines life goals and provides personal meaning—may help explain disparate empirical social science findings. Devoting effort and making progress toward life goals provides a significant, renewable source of engagement and meaning. Purpose offers a testable, causal system that synthesizes outcomes including life expectancy, satisfaction, and mental and physical health. These outcomes may be explained best by considering the motivation of the individual—a motivation that comes from having a purpose. We provide a detailed definition with specific hypotheses derived from a synthesis of relevant findings from social, behavioral, biological, and cognitive literatures. To illustrate the uniqueness of the purpose model, we compared purpose with competing contemporary models that offer similar predictions. Addressing the structural features unique to purpose opens opportunities to build upon existing causal models of “how and why ” health and well-being develop and change over time. What do volunteer services, social support, pet care, and religious attendance have in common? Recent studies indicate that people participating in these activities live longer than those who do not. Volunteers had a 60 % lower mortality rate compared with

released a set of 18 health status indicators (1) and encouraged their use by federal, State, and local health agencies. The indicatorswere developedin response to Objective22.1of HealthyPeople2000 (2) through a consensusproms deseribedin a previousSfa?ktical Now (3). T’hk article reemnrnendsdetailed definitions,suggests national data sources,and providesnational baseline data for each indicator. Background To facilitate wide use of the indicators, the definitions presented here reflect standard data categories that wiI1often be available in published reports. For example, the IrztemationalClassificationof Diseases,Ninth Revision(4) (ICD-9) code definitions recommended for most of the mortality indicators are

this report. Further reproduction of this material is prohibited without specific permission of the copyright holder. All other material contained in this report is in the public domain and may be used and reprinted without special permission; citation as to source, however, is appreciated. Suggested Citation

and reports............. 10

The technical appendix preparation was coordinated by Sherry L. Murphy in the Division of Vital Statistics under the general direction of Harry M. Rosenberg, Chief of the Mortality Statistics Branch. The vital statistics computer file on which it is based were prepared by staff from the Division of Vital Statistics, Division of Data Processing, Division of Data Services, and the Office of Research and Methodology.

The technical appendix preparation was coordinated by Sherry L. Murphy in the Division of Vital Statistics under the general direction of Harry M. Rosenberg, Chief of the Mortality Statistics Branch. The vital statistics computer file on which it is based were prepared by staff from the Division of Vital Statistics, Division of Data Processing, Division of Data Services, and the Office of Research and Methodology.

and fetal death statistics

and biological risk assessment

6 the proposed new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards and reasonable alternative

Vital Statistics under the general direction of Stephanie J. Ventura, Chief of the Reproductive Statistics Branch. The vital statistics computer file on which it is based was prepared by staff from the Division of Vital Statistics.