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Religious Attendance and Biological Risk: A National Longitudinal Study of Older Adults

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Abstract

Although several studies suggest that religious involvement is associated with healthier biological functioning in later life, most of this work is cross-sectional. We extend previous research by employing a longitudinal design. Our analysis of Health and Retirement Study (2006/2010) data suggests that older adults who attended religious services weekly or more in 2006 tend to exhibit fewer high-risk biomarkers in 2010 and greater reductions in allostatic load over the 4-year study period than respondents who attended yearly or not at all. These patterns persisted with adjustments for baseline allostatic load and a range of background variables.

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Correspondence to Terrence D. Hill.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors. The current study employs secondary data analysis on de-identified, publicly available data, and therefore did not require IRB approval.

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Suh, H., Hill, T.D. & Koenig, H.G. Religious Attendance and Biological Risk: A National Longitudinal Study of Older Adults. J Relig Health 58, 1188–1202 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-018-0721-0

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