To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE


SHARE THIS ARTICLE Printer friendly version of this page

Attending Church is a "Fountain of Youth" for Women?

News Staff : May 18, 2016  JAMA

"Religion and spirituality may be an underappreciated resource that physicians could explore with their patients, as appropriate." -Study Authors

airlift(Washington, DC)—Frequently attending religious services was associated with a lower risk of death for women from all causes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, according to a new study published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. (Photo via Gospel Herald)

Religious practice is common in the United States but the effects of religious practice on health are not clear.

Tyler J. VanderWeele, Ph.D., of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public, Boston, and coauthors used data from the Nurses' Health Study in an analysis examining attendance at religious services and subsequent death in women. Attendance at religious services was assessed in questionnaires from 1992 to 2012; data analysis was conducted from the 1996 questionnaire to 2012 for a 16-year follow-up.

Among 74,534 women at the 1996 study baseline with reported religious service attendance, 14,158 attended more than once a week, 30,401 attended once per week, 12,103 attended less than once per week and 17,872 never attended. Most of the study participants were Catholic or Protestant. Women who frequently attended religious services tended to have fewer depressive symptoms, were less likely to be current smothers and more likely to be married.

Among the 74,534 women, there were 13,537 deaths, including 2,721 from cardiovascular disease and 4,479 from cancer.

Women who attended religious services more than once per week had a 33 percent lower risk of death during the 16 years of follow-up compared with women who never attended religious services. Women who attended services weekly had a 26 percent lower risk and those who attended services less than weekly had a 13 percent lower risk, according to the results.

The study indicates women who attended religious services more than once a week had a 27 percent lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a 21 percent lower risk of death from cancer compared with women who never attended.

The authors note depressive symptoms, smoking, social support and optimism were potentially important mediators of the association between attending religious services and death.

However, the authors note limits in the generalizability of their results because the study mainly consisted of white Christians and the participants were nurses with similar socioeconomic status and who were health conscious. This observational study also cannot imply causality and the authors note that a randomized clinical trial of attendance at religious services is neither ethical nor feasible.

"Religion and spirituality may be an underappreciated resource that physicians could explore with their patients, as appropriate," the authors conclude.

Commentary: Empirical Studies about Attendance at Religious Services, Health
"In this issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, Li et al report a clear and moderately strong association between attendance at religious services and decreased mortality during a 16-year follow-up of a subgroup from the Nurses' Health Study... First, readers and investigators must, as do these authors, focus on the data, no more and no less, and not attempt to generalize beyond the evidence... So what can we learn from this study? In this well-designed secondary data analysis, attendance at religious services is clearly associated with lower risk of mortality. This finding should not be ignored but rather explored in more depth," writes Dan German Blazer, II, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., of Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, in a related commentary.







SHARE THIS ARTICLE Printer friendly version of this page

To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE

Other Recent Articles from Breaking Christian News

Trump Under Fire for Endorsing the Bible, Urging Americans to Pray

Whistleblower Claims Stormy Daniels 'Hush Money' Scheme Cooked Up by Michael Cohen to Extort Trump before 2016 Election

Speaker Johnson Announces He'll Invite Netanyahu to Address Congress

Federal Appeals Court Rules Pennsylvania Must Only Count Mail Ballots With Dates, Signatures

Illegal Alien Charged with Murdering a Michigan Woman Was Deported Under Trump But Snuck Back into US Under Biden's Watch

President Trump to Join Wake Honoring Slain NYPD Officer, While Biden Attends Fundraiser

Woke Disney Surrenders!

Illegals Using Fake Skimmers at Self-Checkouts to Drain Consumers' Bank Accounts; Here's How to Guard Yourself

Elon Musk to Pay Embattled Doctor's Legal Fees after Speaking Out against COVID Lockdowns

Safety of Women Hangs in Balance after Oral Arguments on Abortion Pill Regulation

New Federal Gun Grab Law Would Criminalize Shooting Ranges, and Even Private Security

Treasury Sec. Yellen: Biden Has NO Plan to Save Social Security

Maryland Governor Says 'Keep on Praying' for Families of Missing Workers after Baltimore Bridge Collapse

Chick-fil-A Abandons Long-Held 'No Antibiotics' Pledge on Chicken

The War in Myanmar: Karenni Resistance Fighters Ask for Prayer and Practical Help

The World Is Facing a Major Population Crisis by 2075 If Birth Rates Keep Falling

FDA Admits COVID Vaccines Cause Seizures in Toddlers

'Hamas Is Celebrating' after US Abstains from UN Security Council Ceasefire Vote: Netanyahu Cancels Visit

Kamala Harris Won't Disclose Why Biden Campaign Is Active on TikTok Despite Security Worries

Special Counsel Report Reveals University of Delaware Misled Courts to Hide Biden's Senate Records That Likely Hold Sexual Assault Complaint Filed by Tara Reade



Search the Articles Archives

Keyword:  
Author:  
Words Posted On:  
Day Month Year



BCN Plus

Follow BCN on Twitter
Are You Praying for Our Government Leaders?
BCN Staff

Steve Shultz
Steve Shultz, Managing Editor
Founder and Owner


Aimee Herd
Aimee Herd, Editor


BCN Plus
Are You Praying for President Trump?
 
 

All articles on this site and emails from BCN are copyrighted property of Breaking Christian News. Permission is given to link to, or share a BCN story if proper attribution is given to both the original writer and summarizer of the story. Breaking Christian News 2005-2019. All Rights Reserved.


Breaking Christian News is a division of Elijah List Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved


Disclaimer: Articles and links, as well as the source articles linked to; do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Breaking Christian News.

editor@breakingchristiannews.com