Does Private Religious Activity Prolong Survival? A Six-Year Follow-up Study of 3,851 Older Adults
The Journals of Gerontology Series APublished 1 July 2000Open access
H. M. Helm, Judith C. Hays, Elizabeth P. Flint, H. G. Koenig, Dan G. Blazer
Citations201
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score1.33
SNIP1.28
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
Older adults who participate in private religious activity before the onset of ADL impairment appear to have a survival advantage over those who do not.
Abstract
Older adults who participate in private religious activity before the onset of ADL impairment appear to have a survival advantage over those who do not.
Keywords
PsychologySocial SciencesMedicine
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B (Statistical Methodology)Regression Models and Life-Tables
39,259 Citations1972D. R. Cox
Journal of the American Geriatrics SocietyA Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire for the Assessment of Organic Brain Deficit in Elderly Patients†
5,362 Citations1975Eric Pfeiffer
A 10‐item Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ), easily administered by any clinician in the office or in a hospital, has been designed, tested, standardized and validated.
American Journal of EpidemiologySOCIAL NETWORKS, HOST RESISTANCE, AND MORTALITY: A NINE-YEAR FOLLOW-UP STUDY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY RESIDENTS
5,347 Citations1979Lisa Berkman, S. Leonard Syme
The findings show that people who lacked social and community ties were more likely to die in the follow-up period than those with more extensive contacts.
JAMAAlternative Therapies in Health and Medicine
1,745 Citations1996Dawn Bick
The purpose and scope are presented in an essay by the executive editor in the first issue, as he states, alternative medicine has always existed and should be carefully examined in an unbiased manner.
Journal of Health and Social BehaviorReligious Involvement and Subjective Well-Being
1,481 Citations1991Christopher G. Ellison
There are persistent denominational variations in life satisfaction, but not in happiness: nondenominational Protestants, liberal Protestants, and members of nontraditional groups such as Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses report greater life satisfaction than do their unaffiliated counterparts, even with the effects of other dimensions of religiosity held constant.
American Journal of EpidemiologyTHE ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND ACTIVITIES WITH MORTALITY: PROSPECTIVE EVIDENCE FROM THE TECUMSEH COMMUNITY HEALTH STUDY
1,392 Citations1982James S. House, Cynthia Robbins +1 more
Men reporting a higher levels of social relationships and activities in 1967-1969 were significantly less likely to die during the follow-up period and trends for women were similar, but generally nonsignificant once age and other risk factors were controlled.
Journal of GerontologyA Guttman Health Scale for the Aged
1,133 Citations1966Irving Rosow, Naomi Breslau
American Journal of EpidemiologyTHE EPIDEMIOLOGIC EVIDENCE FOR A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL SUPPORT AND HEALTH
920 Citations1983W E Broadhead, Berton H. Kaplan +7 more
Journal for the Scientific Study of ReligionReligion and the Problem-Solving Process: Three Styles of Coping
877 Citations1988Kenneth I. Pargäment, Joseph Kennell +4 more
DemographyReligious involvement and U.S. adult mortality
839 Citations1999Robert A. Hummer, Richard G. Rogers +2 more
Although the magnitude of the relationship between religious attendance and mortality varies by cause of death, the direction of the association is consistent across causes.
American Journal of Public HealthFrequent attendance at religious services and mortality over 28 years.
693 Citations1997William J. Strawbridge, Richard. D. Cohen +2 more
Lower mortality rates for frequent religious attenders are partly explained by improved health practices, increased social contacts, and more stable marriages occurring in conjunction with attendance.
Journal of GerontologyThe Association of Age and Depression Among the Elderly: An Epidemiologic Exploration
692 Citations1991Dan G. Blazer, Bruce M. Burchett +2 more
The Duke EPESE assessed 3,998 community-dwelling elders (65+) for depressive symptoms using a modified version of the CES-D and relevant control variables and the oldest old suffered fewer depressive symptoms when factors associated with both increased age and depressive symptoms were taken into account.
American Journal of EpidemiologyMaintaining Mobility in Late Life. II. Smoking, Alcohol Consumption, Physical Activity, and Body Mass Index
524 Citations1993Andrea Z. LaCroix, Jack M. Guralnik +3 more
It is suggested that positive health behaviors can not only extend longevity but also reduce the risk of losing mobility and independence in later life.
Journal of GerontologyA Longitudinal Study of Functional Change and Mortality in the United States
518 Citations1988Kenneth G. Mantón
American Journal of Public HealthMortality among the elderly in the Alameda County Study: behavioral and demographic risk factors.
464 Citations1987George A. Kaplan, Teresa E. Seeman +3 more
Increased risk of death is associated with being male, smoking, having little leisure-time physical activity, deviating from moderate weight relative to height, and not regularly eating breakfast in members of the Alameda County (California) Study.
The American Journal of MedicineValue of functional status as a predictor of mortality: Results of a prospective study
391 Citations1992David B. Reuben, Lisa V. Rubenstein +2 more
Of the independent predictors of death identified in this sample, only functional impairment and living alone are remediable and whether improving functional status can reduce the risk of mortality remains to be determined.
Social Science & MedicineHow religion influences morbidity and health: Reflections on natural history, salutogenesis and host resistance
353 Citations1996Jeffrey S. Levin
This paper provides an enumeration of common misinterpretations of epidemiologic findings for religious involvement, as well as an outline of hypothesized pathways, mediating factors, and salutogenic mechanisms for respective religious dimensions.
American Journal of Public HealthReligion and mortality among the community-dwelling elderly.
351 Citations1998Doug Oman, Dwayne Reed
Lower mortality rates for those who attend religious services are only partly explained by the 6 possible confounders listed above, and Psychodynamic and other explanations need further investigation.
The Journals of Gerontology Series ADoes Religious Attendance Prolong Survival? A Six-Year Follow-Up Study of 3,968 Older Adults
343 Citations1999Harold G. Koenig, Judith C. Hays +6 more
Older adults, particularly women, who attend religious services at least once a week appear to have a survival advantage over those attending services less frequently.
Journal of GerontologyStress and Religious Involvement Among Older Blacks
327 Citations1989Neal Krause, Than Van Tran
The findings from this model indicated that although life stress to erode feelings of self-worth and mastery, these negative effects were offset or counterbalanced by increased religious involvement.
Journal of Clinical EpidemiologySocial networks as predictors of ischemic heart disease, cancer, stroke and hypertension: Incidence, survival and mortality
306 Citations1992Thomas Vogt
Social network measures were strong predictors of both cause-specific and all-cause mortality among persons who had incident cases of IHD, cancer, and stroke, and suggest that social networks may be more effective in supporting recovery after illness has occurred than in preventing the incidence of new disease.
American Journal of EpidemiologyPSYCHOSOCIAL PREDICTORS OF MORTALITY AMONG THE ELDERLY POOR
286 Citations1984Diana M. Zuckerman, Stanislav V. Kasl +1 more
Three psychosocial variables were significant predictors: religiousness, happiness, and presence of living offspring, and the first two reduced the risk of mortality primarily among the elderly who were in poor health, while the third one did not interact with health status.
The GerontologistReligion and Well-Being in Later Life
282 Citations1988Harold G. Koenig, James N. Kvale +1 more
Journal of Aging and HealthReligion, Health, and Psychological Well-Being in Older Adults
267 Citations1998Jeffrey S. Levin, Linda M. Chatters
This study examines the impact of religious involvement on health status and psychological well-being using data on older adults from three national probability surveys: the Myth and Reality of Aging, the Quality of American Life, and Americans' Changing Lives studies to reveal excellent overall fit in all three samples.
The International Journal of Psychiatry in MedicineAttendance at Religious Services, Interleukin-6, and other Biological Parameters of Immune Function in Older Adults
250 Citations1997Harold G. Koenig, Harvey Jay Cohen +4 more
There is a weak relationship between religious attendance and high IL-6 levels that could not be explained by other covariates, depression, or negative life events, and this finding provides some support for the hypothesis that older adults who frequently attend religious services have healthier immune systems.
American Journal of Public HealthDoes religious observance promote health? mortality in secular vs religious kibbutzim in Israel.
227 Citations1996J. D. Kark, Galia Shemi +4 more
Belonging to a religious collective was associated with a strong protective effect not attributable to confounding by sociodemographic factors, and mechanisms mediating this effect may provide etiologic insights and leads for intervention.
Journal of the American Geriatrics SocietyReligious Activities and Attitudes of Older Adults in a Geriatric Assessment Clinic
215 Citations1988Harold G. Koenig, David O. Moberg +1 more
It is suggested that religion is a powerful cultural force in the lives of older medical patients and is integrally related to both mental and physical health.
Journal of Clinical EpidemiologyFunctional health status as a predictor of mortality in men and women over 65
213 Citations1997William K. Scott, Caroline A. Macera +2 more
In both men and women, increasing score on the ADL-IADL scale was predictive of mortality, adjusting for increasing age, poor self-rated health, low body mass index in women, and being an unmarried man.
PubMedChanges in functional status and the risks of subsequent nursing home placement and death.
201 Citations1993Fredric D. Wolinsky, Christopher Callahan +2 more
The risk of nursing home placement and death between the 1986 and 1988 follow-ups was associated with deterioration in advanced ADLs and lower body function and substantial improvement in model fit was obtained for both outcomes.
The Journal of Alternative and Complementary MedicineStress Reduction and Preventing Hypertension: Preliminary Support for a Psychoneuroendocrine Mechanism
160 Citations1995Kenneth G. Walton, Nirmal D. Pugh +2 more
Improvements in mood state, adrenocortical activity, and kidney function are identified as probable factors in the preventive and treatment effects of stress reduction and add mechanistic support to the contention that hypertensive heart disease is avoidable, even in modern industrialized societies.
Journal of GerontologyAging, Religiosity, and Adjustment: A Longitudinal Analysis
136 Citations1983K. S. Markides
It is found that church attendance and practice of private prayer remained relatively stable over time and that self-rated religiosity increased somewhat, and of the three measures only church attendance showed a significant effect on life satisfaction.
The American Journal of CardiologyUsefulness of the transcendental meditation program in the treatment of patients with coronary artery disease
133 Citations1996John W. Zamarra, Robert H. Schneider +3 more
Patients with documented coronary artery disease were tested at baseline by exercise tolerance testing, and assigned to either stress reduction using the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program or to a wait-list control, and after 8 months, the TM group had a 14.7% increase in exercise tolerance.
Journal of Clinical EpidemiologyPrevalence and determinants of coronary heart disease in a rural population of India
131 Citations1997Rajeev Gupta, Hari Prakash Palaniswamy +2 more
Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age and smoking in males and age and systolic blood pressure in females were associated with higher prevalence of Q-wave CHD, while education and prayer-habit are protective.
International Journal of NeuroscienceA Controlled Study of the Effects of the Transcendental Meditation® Program on Cardiovascular Reactivity and Ambulatory Blood Pressure
127 Citations1997Stig Wenneberg, Robert H. Schneider +8 more
Since ambulatory BP monitoring has been shown to be a better predictor of cardiovascular complications of hypertension than clinic BP, this finding may have important implications for primary prevention of CVD in normotensive subjects.
PubMedSocial functioning and overall mortality: prospective evidence from the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study.
109 Citations1994George A. Kaplan, Thomas Wilson +4 more
Men in the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study were at increased risk of death if they reported few persons to whom they gave or received social support, nonparticipation in organizations, low quality of social relationships, a small number of friends, or not currently being married.
Journal of the American Geriatrics SocietyThe Predictive Power of Self‐Rated Health, Activities of Daily Living, and Ambulatory Activity for Cause‐Specific Mortality among the Elderly: A Three‐year Follow‐up in Urban Japan
101 Citations1994Ichiro Tsuji, Yuko Minami +5 more
Examination of the predictive power of self‐rated health, activities of daily living, and ambulatory activity for different causes of death in a representative sample of older persons finds that self-rated health and daily living activities improve with age.
American Journal of EpidemiologyHealth and Social Predictors of Mortality in an Elderly Chinese Cohort
99 Citations1991Suzanne C. Ho
The mortality patterns of Hong Kong and of the studied cohort closely resemble that of Western developed countries with cancer, heart disease, and cerebrovascular diseases as the leading causes of death.
Aging & Mental HealthSocial support and depression as risk factors for loss of physical function in late life
94 Citations1997Judith C. Hays, W. Bruce Saunders +3 more
This study suggests that significant risk of functional impairment could be reduced among elderly persons if coincidental depressive symptoms could be alleviated and/or deficits in their social environment remedied.
PubMedAn experimental study of the effects of distant, intercessory prayer on self-esteem, anxiety, and depression.
89 Citations1997Seán A. O'Laoire
A significant positive correlation was found between the amount of prayer the agents did and their scores on the five objective tests, and subjects' views of the locus of God's action showed significance in three objective measures.
Depression and AnxietyAge of first onset of bipolar disorder: Demographic, family history, and psychosocial correlates
76 Citations1998Judith C. Hays, Kousik Krishnan +2 more
It is found that bipolar subjects with later age of onset reported less family history of psychiatric problems, more comorbid vascular disease, and more instrumental and subjective social support.
Journal of Aging and HealthReligious Denomination and Depression in Older Dutch Citizens
70 Citations1998Arjan W. Braam, Aartjan T.F. Beekman +4 more
This study describes the distribution of depressive symptoms in older Dutch citizens across religious denominations, finding that Reformed Calvinists had the lowest depressive scores (CES-D); Protestants from liberal denominations the highest; Roman Catholics, Dutch Reformed, and nonchurch members were in between.
Journal of Clinical EpidemiologyGlobal self-ratings of health and mortality: Hazard in the North Carolina Piedmont
64 Citations1996Judith C. Hays, David E. Schoenfeld +2 more
Assessment of the effect of a global self-rating of health on survival and overall health assessment in the Piedmont of North Carolina found that Adjusted risk of mortality associated with poor (compared to excellent) self-ratings of health was significantly elevated among urban men only.
Journal of Religion and HealthReligion and the Survival of 1010 Hospitalized Veterans
64 Citations1998Harold G. Koenig, David B. Larson +6 more
Neither religious affiliation nor dependence on religion as a coping behavior predicted survival in this sample of medically-ill male veterans following discharge, suggesting the mortality force exerted by age, medical diagnosis, and severity of physical-health problems overwhelmed the weaker effects of psychosocial variables.
The International Journal of Aging and Human DevelopmentReligiosity and Adaptation in the Oldest-Old
60 Citations1992Bradley C. Courtenay, Leonard W. Poon +3 more
The preliminary results of this research project support earlier findings that religiosity does not change significantly as one ages, although there is a trend in the results that suggests otherwise.
Journal of GerontologyMortality in Relation to Instrumental Activities of Daily Living: One-year Follow-up in a Japanese Urban Community
57 Citations1989Wataru Koyano, Hiroshi Shibata +4 more
One-year mortality among 7,573 elderly residents living in an urban Japanese community was observed in relation to disability in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL).
PubMedLifestyle risk factors and coronary heart disease prevalence in Indian men.
25 Citations1996Rajiv Gupta
The prevalence of CHD was significantly more in urban men than in rural men and Odds ratios for CHD and lifestyle risk factors showed significant positive associations with nuclear family and smoking.
Social Science & MedicineHealth and ways of living: The Almeda county study
9 Citations1985R Beaglehole