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Survey shows that individuals who attend church service tends to live longer than those don't.
Harvard University Study
A study by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health andpublished online in JAMA Internal Medicine found that women whoattended religious services more than once a week were more than 30%
The study also found that compared with women who never attended religious services, women who attended more than once per week had a decreased risk of both cardiovascular mortality (27%) and cancer mortality (21%). “Our results suggest that there may be something important aboutreligious service attendance beyond solitary spirituality,” said Tyler Vander Weele, professor of epidemiology at Harvard Chan School and senior author of the study. “Part of the benefit seems to be that attending religious services increases social support, discourages smoking, decreases depression, and helps people develop a more optimistic or hopeful outlook on life.”
Researchers looked at data from 1992-2012 from 74,534 middle-aged female nurses. From the study: “the sample is derived from female nurses who volunteered to participate in the study. These women are therefore better educated than the general population, more willing to participate in activities that are of value to the larger community given their volunteer status, and informed about health and health care in general.”
The women answered questionnaires about their lifestyle, diet and health every two years, and about their religious service attendance every four years. Researchers adjusted for a variety of factors, including diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption, body mass index, smoking, depression, race and ethnicity. Most of the women in the study were Protestant or Catholic. The baseline age of the participants was 60 years or older – and “therefore the study cannot be generalized to men or young adults.”
The study concludes:
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. Are their confounding variables of importance not available to the investigators of this study? What possible mechanism may contribute to this association? Is attendance at religious services in some way associated with health habits critical to longevity that are not considered in this study? In otherwords, the study invites additional investigation, as the iterative nature of epidemiology so often does.
Another source who also quoted Tyler Vander Weele
All of this indicates that religious service attendance is an important, and probably under-appreciated, social determinant of health. It is something thatshould be taken into account in public health discussions. We would not think to neglect other powerful social determinants of health such as race, or gender,or social support in our discussions. The same should probably be true of religious service attendance as well. Finally, within the context of medicine, there have been debates as to whether and to what extent it is appropriate to discuss issues of religion and spirituality in a clinical setting.
Whether religion should be discussed with patients during care will of course be context-specific. It may be thought to be more appropriate and important in end of life settings. Many patients — and in the United States it is the majority — say they think that doctors should consider patients’ spiritual needs. Many doctors feel uncomfortable doing so. Conversations will be easier if the clinician and the patient share the same, or a similar, faith, but these matters can be discussed in general terms as well. Training on how to do so can be helpful.
If issues of religion and spirituality do come up in conversation, clinicians could inquire about service attendance as a potentially meaningful form of social participation. Decisions about religious practice and formation of religious beliefs are, of course, not generally made on the grounds of health. However, for those who already hold religious beliefs, but do not attend services, the research on religion and health does question whether they are perhaps missing something of the communal religious experience that is powerful, at least for health, and possibly for much else as well.
Tyler J Vander Weele is professor of epidemiology at Harvard T H ChanSchool of Public Health.See also;
22 amazing facts about the human body
I particularly agree with Tyler, I for one am a Christian and I can tell for sure that association with the body of Christ is an assurance of a healthy and wonderful lifestyle. I invite you to join me in the family of Christ today by clicking Here.
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