Does devoutness delay death? Psychological investment in religion and its association with longevity in the Terman sample.

Abstract

Religious people tend to live slightly longer lives (M. E. McCullough, W. T. Hoyt, D. B. Larson, H. G. Koenig, & C. E. Thoresen, 2000). On the basis of the principle of social investment (J. Lodi-Smith & B. W. Roberts, 2007), the authors sought to clarify this phenomenon with a study of religion and longevity that (a) incorporated measures of psychological religious commitment; (b) considered religious change over the life course; and (c) examined 19 measures of personality traits, social ties, health behaviors, and mental and physical health that might help to explain the religion-longevity association. Discrete-time survival growth mixture models revealed that women (but not men) with the lowest degrees of religiousness through adulthood had shorter lives than did women who were more religious. Survival differences were largely attributable to cross-sectional and prospective between-class differences in personality traits, social ties, health behaviors, and mental and physical health.

Associations Between Religious Involvement and Behavioral Risk Factors for HIV/AIDS in American Women and Men in a National Health Survey

“…These findings illustrate the importance of examining multiple dimensions of religious involvement as related to health outcomes. They also mirror previous research showing that women are more religiously involved than men [35,36] and that there are sex differences in religion's role in health behaviors and outcomes [37][38][39][40][41]. Somewhat puzzling is the finding that religious denomination plays a more complex role in risky sexual behaviors for men than for women.…”

Perceptions of Longevity and Successful Aging in Very Old Adults

“…Ample experimental evidence documents the association between religious participation and mortality, where religious individuals live longer than do their non-religious counterparts (e.g., McCullough, Friedman, Enders, & Martin, 2009). For example, Hummer, Rogers, Nam, and Ellison (1999) have shown that Americans who attend worship services twice a week live an average of 7.6 years longer than their non-attending counterparts (a figure that nearly doubles to 13.7 years among African Americans; see Marks et al, 2005).…”

Examining Social Connections as a Link Between Religious Participation and Well-being Among Older Adults

“…For example, church attendance has been associated with a positive perception of health among older adults with chronic diseases (Yohannes, Koenig, Baldwin, & Connolly, 2008), increased physical functioning (Koenig, George, & Titus, 2004), and less co-morbidity (Koenig et al, 2004;Yohannes et al, 2008). Religious participation also has been linked to lower rates of depression (Cruz et al, 2009), lower mortality rates (McCullough, Hoyt, Larson, Koenig, & Thoresen, 2000;Powell, Shahabi, & Thoresen, 2003), and increased longevity (Gartner, Larson, & Allen, 1991;McCullough, Friedman, Enders, & Martin, 2009;Yohannes et al, 2008). Though functional limitations are more likely to hinder their attendance at religious services compared to younger individuals (Benjamins & Finlayson, 2007), older adults are more likely to engage in prayer, attend church, and derive greater life satisfaction from their religious practices (Fiori et al, 2006; see also Krause, 2004, for review).…”