Women’s Health

God is good All the time

A 2016 Harvard report revealed a study followed 74,534 women for 20 years; those who attended religious services more than once a week enjoyed a 33 percent lower mortality rate than those who skipped church. 

Boston, MA – Women who attended religious services more than once per week were more than 30% less likely to die during a 16-year-follow-up than women who never attended, according to a study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Frequent attendees also had significantly lower risk both from cardiovascular- and cancer-related mortality.

The study was published online May 16, 2016 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“Our results suggest that there may be something important about religious service attendance beyond solitary spirituality,” said Tyler VanderWeele, 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.”

Nearly 40% of Americans report attending religious services once per week or more. Previous studies have suggested a link between attendance and reduced mortality risk, but many were criticized for major limitations, including the possibility of “reverse causation”—that only those who are healthy can attend services, so that attendance isn’t necessarily influencing health. The new study addressed these criticisms by using rigorous methodology that controlled for common causes of attendance and mortality, used a larger sample size, and had repeated measurements over time of both attendance and health.

The researchers looked at data from 1992-2012 from 74,534 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study. The women answered questionnaires about their diet, lifestyle, and health every two years, and about their religious service attendance every four years. The researchers adjusted for a variety of factors, including diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption, smoking status, body mass index, social integration, depression, race and ethnicity.

Compared with women who never attended religious services, women who attended more than once per week had 33% lower mortality risk during the study period and lived an average of five months longer, the study found. Those who attended weekly had 26% lower risk and those who attended less than once a week had 13% lower risk.

The study also found that women who attended religious services once per week or more had a decreased risk of both cardiovascular mortality (27%) and cancer mortality (21%).

One limitation of the study is that it consisted mainly of white Christians and therefore might not be generalizable to the general population, other countries, or areas with limited religious freedom. In addition, the study population included only U.S. nurses of a similar socioeconomic status, who tend to be fairly health conscious.

Other Harvard Chan School authors involved in the study included lead author Shanshan Li, postdoctoral researcher in epidemiology; Meir Stampfer, professor of epidemiology and nutrition; and David R. Williams, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health.

The Nurses’ Health Study was funded by grant UM1 CA186107 from the National Institutes of Health. The analysis and article was supported by a research grant from the Templeton Foundation.

“Association of Religious Service Attendance with Mortality Among Women,” Shanshan Li, Meir J. Stampfer, David R. Williams, Tyler J. VanderWeele, JAMA Internal Medicine, online May 16, 2016, doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1615

Visit the Harvard Chan website for the latest news, press releases, and multimedia offerings.

For more information:

Karen Feldscher
kfeldsch@hsph.harvard.edu
617.432.8439

###

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere. As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to people’s lives—not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices. Each year, more than 400 faculty members at Harvard Chan School teach 1,000-plus full-time students from around the world and train thousands more through online and executive education courses. Founded in 1913 as the Harvard-MIT School of Health Officers, the School is recognized as America’s oldest professional training program in public health.

More at: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/religious-service-attendance-womens-mortality-risk/