Religion and survival in a secular region. A twenty year follow-up of 734 Danish adults born in 1914 (original) (raw)
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Religion, a social determinant of mortality? A 10-year follow-up of the Health and Retirement Study
PLOS One, 2017
The social determinants of health framework has brought a recognition of the primary importance of social forces in determining population health. Research using this framework to understand the health and mortality impact of social, economic, and political conditions, however, has rarely included religious institutions and ties. We investigate a well-measured set of social and economic determinants along with several measures of religious participation as predictors of adult mortality. Respondents (N = 18,370) aged 50 and older to the Health and Retirement Study were interviewed in 2004 and followed for all-cause mortality to 2014. Exposure variables were religious attendance, importance, and affiliation. Other social determinants of health included gender, race/ethnicity, education, household income, and net worth measured at baseline. Confounders included physical and mental health. Health behaviors and social ties were included as potential explanatory variables. Cox proportional hazards regressions were adjusted for complex sample design. After adjustment for confounders, attendance at religious services had a dose-response relationship with mortality, such that respondents who attended frequently had a 40% lower hazard of mortality (HR = 0.60, 95% CI 0.53–0.68) compared with those who never attended. Those for whom religion was " very important " had a 4% higher hazard (HR = 1.04, 95% CI 1.01–1.07); religious affiliation was not associated with risk of mortality. Higher income and net worth were associated with a reduced hazard of mortality as were female gender, Latino ethnicity, and native birth. Religious participation is multi-faceted and shows both lower and higher hazards of mortality in an adult US sample in the context of a comprehensive set of other social and economic determinants of health.
International Journal of Epidemiology, 1996
A and Salonen J T. Religious affiliation and all-cause mortality: A prospective population study in middle-aged men in eastern Finland. International Journal of Epidemiology 1996; 25: 1244-1249. Background. Previous data suggest a favourable association between religion and mortality. Methods. We investigated the association between selected religious groups and all-cause mortality in 1627 eastern Finnish men aged 42-60 years during 1984-1989 as a part of the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (KIHD). Results. Eastern Orthodox men had a 5.1-fold (95% confidence interval [Cl : 1.98-13.3, P < 0.001) mortality as compared with Lutheran men after adjusting for main confounders. Adjustment for different sets of covariates did not affect the magnitude of relative hazard (RH) notably. Adjusted for the examination year, age, family history of coronary heart disease (CHD), and ischaemia in exercise electrocardiograms, RH was 4.4 (95% Cl : 2.5-7.5, P < 0.001) and 4.7 (95% Cl : 2.7-8.3, P < 0.001) after an additional adjustment for serum cholesterol, blood leucocytes, plasma fibrinogen, serum triglycerides, maximal oxygen uptake, height, and weight. With adjustment for income, childhood socioeconomic status (SES), and years of education RH for the Orthodox religion was 4.2 (95% Cl : 2.4-7.3, P < 0.001) and 4.4 (95% Cl : 2.5-7.7, P < 0.001) with depression, helplessness, quality of relationships, marital status and organizational participation, and 4.1 (95% Cl: 2.4-7.2, P < 0.001) when adjusted for the use of tobacco and alcohol and the intensity of physical activity. After adjustment for migration because of the war the RH was 4.5 (95% Cl : 1.9-10.8, P< 0.001). Conclusions. Our findings indicate that mortality risk varies substantially by religious affiliation, and this variation cannot be attributed to differences in measures for a wide variety of health, behavioural, socioeconomic, biological, social, and other characteristics.
Predictors of religious participation of older Europeans in good and poor health
2016
Religious attendance is an important element of activity for older Europeans, especially in more traditional countries. The aim of the analysis is to explore whether it could be an element contributing to active ageing as well as to assess differences between the religious activity of older individuals with and without multimorbidity defined as an occurrence of two or more illnesses. The analysis is conducted based on the SHARE database (2010–2011) covering 57,391 individuals 50? from 16 European countries. Logistic regressions are calculated to assess predictors of religious activity. Results point that religious activity often occurs in multimorbidity what could be driven by the need for comfort and compensation from religion. It is also significantly correlated with other types of social activities: volunteering or learning, even among the population with multimorbidity. There is a positive relation between religious activity and age, although its effect is weaker in the case of multimorbidity, as well as being female. Mobility limitations are found to decrease religious participation in both morbidity groups and might be related to discontin-uation of religious practices in older age. The economic situation of older individuals is an insignificant factor for religious attendance. Religious attendance can be an element of active ageing, but also a compensation and adaptation to disadvantages occurring in older age and multimorbidity. At the same time, religious activities are often provided at the community level and targeted to population in poorer health.
Sociological Spectrum, 2011
Both education and religious involvement provide beneficial resources that can positively impact health and mortality outcomes. However, it is unclear whether these important resources work in concert to influence mortality risk. Indeed, religious resources are often placed in opposition to secular knowledge, and this may limit the scope of the positive influence of religious factors on health outcomes. The present study relies on a large (N ¼ 22,080), nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized U.S. adults (National Health Interview Survey-Cancer Risk Factor Supplement) administered in 1987 and linked to the National Death Index through 2006 to test this relationship. Cox proportional hazard estimates suggest that religious involvement has a negative impact on the risk of mortality for those who did not complete college. However, estimates show that religious participation increases the risk of mortality among those with the highest levels of educational attainment. Education and religion provide considerable resources which individuals may use to promote health and well being, and both factors have been shown to impact mortality risk (
Religious Attendance and Cause of Death over 31 Years
The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 2002
Objective: Frequent attendance at religious services has been reported by several studies to be independently associated with lower all-cause mortality. The present study aimed to clarify relationships between religious attendance and mortality by examining how associations of religious attendance with several specific causes of death may be explained by demographics, socioeconomic status, health status, health behaviors, and social connections. Method: Associations between frequent religious attendance and major types of cause-specific mortality between 1965 and 1996 were examined for 6545 residents of Alameda County, California. Sequential proportional hazards regressions were used to study survival time until mortality from circulatory, cancer, digestive, respiratory, or external causes. Results: After adjusting for age and sex, infrequent (never or less than weekly) attenders had significantly higher rates of circulatory, cancer, digestive, and respiratory mortality ( p < 0.0...
Religious involvement and mortality: A meta-analytic review
Health Psychology, 2000
A meta-analysis of data (mm 42 independent samples examining the association of a measure of religious involvement and all-cause mortality is reported. Religious involvement was significantly associated with lower mortality (odds ratio = 1.29; 95% confidence interval: 1.20-1.39), indicating that people high in religious involvement were more likely to be alive at follow-up than people lower in religious involvement. Although the strength of the religious involvement-mortality association varied as a function of several moderator variables, the association of religious involvement and mortality was robust and on the order of magnitude that has come to be expected for psychosocial factors. Conclusions did not appear to be due to publication bias.
Does Religious Attendance Prolong Survival? A Six-Year Follow-Up Study of 3,968 Older Adults
The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 1999
Background. The purpose of the study was to examine religious attendance as a predictor of survival in older adults. Methods. A probability sample of 3,968 community-dwelling adults aged 64-101 years residing in the Piedmont of North Carolina was surveyed in 1986 as part of the Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE) program of the National Institutes of Health. Attendance at religious services and a wide variety of sociodemographic and health variables were assessed at baseline. Vital status of members was then determined prospectively over the next 6 years (1986-1992). Time (days) to death or censoring in days was analyzed using a Cox proportional hazards regression model. Results. During a median 6.3-year follow-up period, 1,777 subjects (29.7%) died. Of the subjects who attended religious services once a week or more in 1986 (frequent attenders), 22.9% died compared to 37.4% of those attending services less than once a week (infrequent attenders). The relative hazard (RH) of dying for frequent attenders was 46% less than for infrequent attenders (RH: 0.54, 95% CI 0.48-.0.61), an effect that was strongest in women (RH 0.51, CI 0.43-0.59) but also present in men (RH 0.63,95% CI 0.52-0.75). When demographics, health conditions, social connections, and health practices were controlled, this effect remained significant for the entire sample (RR 0.72,95% CI 0.64-.81), and for both women (RH 0.65,95% CI 0.55-o.76,p<.OOOI)and men (RH 0.83, 95% CIO.69-1.00,p=.05). Conclusions. Older adults, particularly women, who attend religious services at least once a week appear to have a survival advantage over those attending services less frequently.