Attendance at Religious Services and Mortality in a National Sample

Author:

Musick Marc A.1,House James S.2,Williams David R.3

Affiliation:

1. Marc A. Musick is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Faculty Research Associate of the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on different forms of social interaction as predictors of health and well-being. His more recent work deals with the effects of volunteering and religious practice on health indicators such as depression and mortality.

2. James S. House is Senior Research Scientist and former Director of the Survey Research Center in the Institute for Social Research, and professor and former chair of the department of sociology, at the University of Michigan. His research focuses currently on the role of psychosocial factors in understanding and explaining social inequalities in health and the way health changes with age. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine of the National...

3. David R. Williams is Harold W. Cruse Collegiate Professor of Sociology and Senior Research Scientist at the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan. He is centrally interested in the determinants of socioeconomic and racial differences in physical and mental health. He is currently involved in projects examining discrimination and health, religious involvement and health, and the social distribution of psychiatric disorders in the United States and South Africa.

Abstract

Research and theory increasingly suggest that attendance at religious services is protective against premature mortality. However, prior studies are limited and do not extensively explore potential explanations for the relationship, especially in terms of religious beliefs and behaviors associated with service attendance. This study estimates the impact of service attendance on mortality in a national probability sample and provides the most extensive empirical examination of potential explanations. Individuals who report attending religious services once a month or more (just over 50 percent of the population) have a 30–35 percent reduced risk of death over a 7.5 year follow-up period after adjusting for potential confounding factors. Consistent with prior research, 20–30 percent of this effect may be explained by better health behaviors (especially physical activity) among regular service attendees. Surprisingly, other religious beliefs and behaviors do not explain, and often tend to suppress, the association between service attendance and mortality.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health,Social Psychology

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