Religious Affiliation and All-Cause Mortality: A Prospective Population Study in Middle-Aged Men in Eastern Finland

Räsänen, Joel; Kauhanen, Jussi; Lakka, Timo A.; Kaplan, George A.; Salonen, J. T.

doi:10.1093/ije/25.6.1244

Cited by 20 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Weekly attendance was associated with reduced mortality in a Mexican American cohort as in this study (30). Private religious activity, attitudes or beliefs rarely have been studied in large cohorts; available evidence indicates an inconsistent association with mortality (29,35,46 (29,47).A number of studies have been published suggesting that people affiliated with conservative U.S. Christian religious groups have lower mortality risks than people affiliated with other or no religious groups (18). …”

mentioning

confidence: 56%

“…Private religious activity, attitudes or beliefs rarely have been studied in large cohorts; available evidence indicates an inconsistent association with mortality (29,35,46). Cohort studies of religious affiliation among Christians or Jews or among faiths as the sole measure of religiousness yield results that are difficult to integrate with studies of attendance (29,47).A number of studies have been published suggesting that people affiliated with conservative U.S. Christian religious groups have lower mortality risks than people affiliated with other or no religious groups (18).…”

Section: Comparisons With Previous Reportsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Frequency of Attendance at Religious Services and Mortality in a U.S. National Cohort

Gillum

King

Obisesan

et al. 2008

Annals of Epidemiology

118

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

OBJECTIVE-Few nationally representative cohort studies have appeared on frequency of attendance at religious services and mortality. We test the hypothesis that > weekly attendance compared with nonattendance at religious services is associated with lower probability of future mortality in such a study.METHODS-Data were analyzed from a longitudinal follow-up study of 8450 American men and women age 40 years and older who were examined from 1988 to 1994 and followed an average of 8.5 years. Measurements at baseline included self-reported frequency of attendance at religious services, sociodemographics, and health, physical and biochemical measurements.RESULTS-Death during follow-up occurred in 2058. After adjusting for confounding by baseline sociodemographics and health status, the hazards ratios (95% confidence limits) were never 1.00 (reference); < weekly 0.89 (0.75-1.04), p = 0.15; weekly 0.82 (0.71-0.94) p = 0.005; and > weekly attenders 0.70 (0.59-0.83), p < 0.001. Mediators, including health behaviors and inflammation, explained part of the association. CONCLUSIONS-In a nationwide cohort of Americans, predominantlyChristians, analyses demonstrated a lower risk of death independent of confounders among those reporting religious attendance at least weekly compared to never. The association was substantially mediated by health behaviors and other risk factors. KeywordsAging; Cultural Factors; Epidemiologic Methods; Mortality; Religion; Spirituality Consideration of religion and spirituality has recently found a place in curricula of many American medical schools (1). Justification for this development rests partly on studies showing that spirituality and religion continue to play important roles in the subjective well being of many patients in the United States (2-7). Yet, critics have decried this movement as an "unholy alliance" (8). In part, their criticism rests on the lack of scientific consensus as to whether and by what mechanism spirituality or religion affects the physical health of Americans, conflicting results having appeared in the recent literature. For example, studies Address correspondence to: Dr. R. Gillum, 3311 Toledo Road, Rm 6323, Hyattsville, MD 20782. Tel.: 301-458-4235; fax: 301-458-4036. E-mail: rfg2@cdc.gov. Disclaimer: The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the funding agency. found an apparent protective effect of frequent attendance at religious services at baseline on subsequent mortality in both a California county and a U.S. national cohort of adults (9,10). However, a multicenter study of elderly cohorts in four American cities found an effect of frequent attendance on mortality in only two of the sites and concluded that any apparent effect was spurious (11). Given this controversy, additional attempts to replicate the findings are appropriate. NIH Public AccessReligious affiliation, attendance at religious services, and other religious behavior is more prevalent in the United States, a nation...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 56%

Section: Comparisons With Previous Reportsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frequency of Attendance at Religious Services and Mortality in a U.S. National Cohort

Gillum

King

Obisesan

et al. 2008

Annals of Epidemiology

118

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Tables summarizing the 36 articles that were included are available from the first author [23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59]. Articles were excluded because they overlapped in their study samples with articles that were included [60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67], because they did not include a relevant spirituality/religiosity predictor variable [68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78], or because the outcome was not assessed in terms of mortality [79,80,81]. Table 1 summarizes the detailed characteristics of the 69 studies investigating the effect of religiosity/spirituality on mortality in initially healthy populations that were included in the analysis, and the 22 studies investigating the effect of religiosity/spirituality on mortality in diseased populations.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religiosity/Spirituality and Mortality

Chida

Steptoe

Powell

2009

Psychother Psychosom

300

137

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: The relationship between religiosity/spirituality and physical health has been the subject of growing interest in epidemiological research. We systematically reviewed prospective observational cohort studies of the association between this potentially protective psychological factor and mortality using meta-analytic methods. Methods: We searched general bibliographic databases: Medline, PsycINFO, Web of Science and PubMed (up to 20 March, 2008). Two reviewers independently extracted data on study characteristics, quality, and estimates of associations. Random effects meta-analyses, subgrouping, and sensitivity analysis were performed. Results: There were 69 studies (28 articles) and 22 studies (11 articles) investigating the association between religiosity/spirituality and mortality in initially healthy populations and diseased populations, respectively. The results of the meta-analyses showed that religiosity/spirituality was associated with reduced mortality in healthy population studies (combined hazard ratio = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.76–0.87, p <0.001), but not in diseased population studies (combined hazard ratio = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.94–1.01, p = 0.19). Notably, the protective effect of religiosity/spirituality in the initially healthy population studies was independent of behavioral factors (smoking, drinking, exercising, and socioeconomic status), negative affect, and social support. We divided studies according to the aspects of religiosity/spirituality measure examined, and found that organizational activity (e.g. church attendance) was associated with greater survival in healthy population studies. Multi-dimensional aspects were related to survival in both the healthy and diseased populations. Religiosity/spirituality was negatively associated with cardiovascular mortality in healthy population studies. Conclusions: The current review suggests that religiosity/spirituality has a favorable effect on survival, although the presence of publication biases indicates that results should be interpreted with caution.

show abstract

“…Some results suggest that mortality and morbidity may vary by religion, even when adjusting for major biological, behavioral, and socioeconomic differences (Rasanen et al 1996;Van Poppel, Schellekens, and Liefbroer 2002). However, as mentioned previously, the experience of individuals within a given religion can depend significantly on the local environment, so that the results of such comparisons should be viewed guardedly.…”

Section: The Positive Effects Of Religion On Healthmentioning

confidence: 90%

Religion and Health: A Review and Critical Analysis

Lee

Newberg

2005

Zygon

118

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The study of the relationship between religion and health has grown substantially in the past decade. There is little doubt that religion plays an important role in many people's lives and that this has an impact on their health. The question is how researchers and clinicians can best evaluate the available information and how we can improve upon the current findings. In this essay we review the current knowledge regarding religion and health and also critically review issues pertaining to methodology, findings, and interpretation of these studies. It is important to maintain a rigorous perspective with regard to such studies and also to recognize inherent limitations and suggest constructive ways in which to advance this field of study. In the end, such an approach can provide new information that will improve our understanding of the overall relationship between religion and health.

show abstract

Religious Affiliation and All-Cause Mortality: A Prospective Population Study in Middle-Aged Men in Eastern Finland

Abstract: 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.

Cited by 20 publications

References 5 publications

Frequency of Attendance at Religious Services and Mortality in a U.S. National Cohort

Frequency of Attendance at Religious Services and Mortality in a U.S. National Cohort

Religiosity/Spirituality and Mortality

Religion and Health: A Review and Critical Analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About