Religiosity and Self-Rated Health: A Longitudinal Examination of Their Reciprocal Effects

Positive Effects of Religion and Social Ties on the Health of Former NFL Athletes

This study explores the relationship between religious service attendance, social ties, and health among former NFL players, a population with relatively high levels of religious attendance who endure physically demanding occupations. Research shows that frequent religious service attenders tend to have better health, partly because of social connections formed through religious involvement. We analyzed a sample of 1029 former NFL players. Consistent with previous research, bivariate and multivariate OLS regression models show that frequent religious attenders have statistically significantly better self-rated health. However, this relationship is moderated by social ties. Respondents who scored lower on the social ties index exhibited a stronger significant relationship between frequent religious attendance and health; those scoring higher on the social ties index exhibited no relationship between frequent attendance and health. Future research should examine how benefits of religious attendance vary depending upon strength of social relationships.

Religious Beliefs About Health and the Body and their Association with Subjective Health

Evidence supports an association between religion and spirituality and health outcomes. The aim of this study is to examine religious beliefs related to health and their relationship to self-rated health in a large and diverse population-based sample in Chicago. Three religious beliefs were assessed-the importance of prayer for health, God's will as the most important factor in getting well, and sanctity of the body. All three beliefs were highly prevalent, especially among racial/ethnic minorities. Unadjusted models showed a significant association between two of the beliefs and self-rated health, which did not persist in the adjusted models. This study provides insight into different belief patterns among racial/ethnic groups and has practical implications for both clinicians and public health practitioners.

The Influence of Parental Religiosity on the Health of Children during Late Adolescence/Early Adulthood: A Test of Mediation

The present study explores whether adolescent religiosity, health-related behaviors, and marital stability mediate the association between parental religiosity and health. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult (Add) Health, I model potential direct and indirect effects between three measures of parental religiosity (i.e., parental institutional religiosity, parental personal religiosity, and parental religious affiliation); three sets of mediators indicating adolescent religiosity, health-related behaviors, and marital stability; and self-rated health during late adolescence/early adulthood. Overall, I found that parental institutional religiosity has a direct effect on the self-rated health of children during late adolescence/early adulthood, and that it influences self-rated health by reducing adolescent and parental smoking. I also found evidence for deleterious effects of parental institutional religiosity on health as well. Future research should explore variation in the influence of parental religiosity on self-rated health between various sociodemographic groups and between different stages of the life course.

Resilience in the Aftermath of Childhood Abuse? Changes in Religiosity and Adulthood Psychological Distress

Of all the forms of adversity experienced during childhood, childhood abuse is known to have the largest impacts on mental health. Yet, we have a limited understanding of factors that may cushion the blow of these early insults, and it remains unclear whether stability or increases/decreases in religiosity facilitate or hinder the ability of religion/spirituality to act as a buffer. Using two waves of MIDUS data, results suggest that increases in positive religious coping (seeking comfort through religion/spirituality) during adulthood buffer the association between childhood physical and emotional abuse on psychological distress, while decreases in religious comfort exacerbate it. Religious attendance had no discernible buffering effect. Taken together, results show that the stress-moderating effects of religion depend on changes in religious coping processes over the life course.

The Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS)

Abstract. The current study proposed the adaptation of the Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS) to the religious domain as an instrument to measure both individuals’ religious identity formation processes (when a variable-centered approach is adopted) and religious identity statuses (when a person-centered approach is adopted). The scale has been tested on a sample of 727 Italian participants aged 13–65 years, by collecting evidence of score structure, convergent, and criterion-related validity. Regarding the score structure validity, we confirmed that religious identity formation consists of three processes (commitment, in-depth exploration, reconsideration of commitment) and that, by using these scores, individuals can be placed into five different religious identity clusters (achievement, diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, searching moratorium). As to the convergent and criterion-related validity, we tested the relationship that the three factors (religious identity formation processes) and the five clusters (religious identity statuses) have with religiousness and subjective well-being, respectively. Results indicate that the instrument is a promising tool to measure religious identity. Future studies should test this scale in other countries and with people from diverse religious traditions.

Knowledge, attitude and practice of blood donation and the role of religious beliefs among health sciences undergraduate students

There is a consensus on the importance of education of the population for blood donation. Considering that health sciences undergraduate students will play an important role of opinion makers in their social/professional networks in the future, the present study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitude and practice of the blood donation and religious beliefs among students of a public Brazilian university. All students enrolled in courses of Ribeirão Preto Medical School in 2019 were invited (N = 550). The questionnaire was composed by sociodemographic and behavioral variables, an instrument regarding blood donation attitude and practice, the Blood Donation Knowledge Questionnaire (BDKQ-Brazil) and the Duke University Religious Index (DUREL). Multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate sex- and age-adjusted odds ratios for the relations between sociodemographic/behavioral characteristics and blood donation practice. The association between the responses to the BDKQ-Brazil and blood donation practice was performed using Fisher's Exact Test. Three hundred and forty students were included (81.5% females). Blood donation has been a common practice for part of the students, who have almost entirely shown a positive attitude towards donation and a high rate of self-efficacy regarding their practice. However, less than expected knowledge was observed. Regarding religious beliefs, lower scores of non-organizational and intrinsic religiosity were detected among those male students who never donated blood. Our results suggest the need to develop educational activities for students aiming, in addition to their awareness of the practice of donation, the spread of information regarding blood donation in the future.

Religion, Health, and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from Australia

In this article, we examine the influence of religion on health and life satisfaction while controlling for an extensive range of demographic characteristics and life conditions-marital satisfaction, job satisfaction, financial stress, and social resources-using data drawn from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. Our findings suggest that, on average, high levels of faith and attendance at religious services are associated with lower health. In contrast, however, we find no relationship between high levels of faith, attendance, and life satisfaction. Further research is required to unravel how faith and attendance influence health and life satisfaction.

The healthy aging phenotype in older people in Manizales

Introducción.

El fenotipo de envejecimiento saludable está presente en aquellos individuos que envejecen con poca morbilidad, sin deterioro funcional ni cognitivo, y con un nivel aceptable de bienestar y de participación social.

Objetivo.

Establecer la frecuencia del fenotipo de envejecimiento saludable según un modelo multidimensional, uno biomédico y uno psicosocial, y determinar los factores de predicción en cada uno de ellos.

Materiales y métodos.

Se hizo un estudio de diseño transversal, observacional y descriptivo, que incluyó a 402 personas (50,1 % mujeres) de 65 años y más (promedio de edad, 69,2) en el área urbana de Manizales. El fenotipo de envejecimiento saludable se caracterizó en cinco dimensiones: salud metabólica y fisiológica, función física, función cognitiva, bienestar psicológico y bienestar social. Los factores asociados incluyeron aspectos sociodemográficos y de salud.

Resultados.

La prevalencia de envejecimiento saludable fue de 15,5 % en el modelo multidimensional, de 12,3 % en el biomédico y de 63,3 % en el psicosocial. El tener autopercepción de buena salud fue un factor de predicción independiente de envejecimiento saludable en los tres modelos, así como la satisfacción con los ingresos económicos en el modelo biomédico y en el psicosocial. Un tercer factor de predicción fue el estar casado, aunque fue significativo solamente en el modelo psicosocial.

Conclusiones.

La prevalencia del fenotipo de envejecimiento saludable fue baja en el modelo biológico y en el multidimensional (1 de cada 10 personas), y mayor en el modelo psicosocial (6 de cada 10). A pesar de ello, los factores predictores independientes fueron los mismos: la autopercepción de buena o muy buena salud, la satisfacción con los ingresos económicos y el estar casado.

Association between Religion and Health in China: Using Propensity Score Matching Method

The association between religion and health is well debated and receives continuous attention in research. Selection bias is often a major concern among the observatory data routinely used worldwide to examine this topic. Adopting the propensity score matching (PSM) method, the present study tries to assess the treatment effects of religion on self-reported health status. The final sample from the 2007 Spiritual Life Study of Chinese Residents (SLSC) contains 6194 valid responses. The average treatment effects (ATEs) estimated by the PSM method show that respondents with religious affiliations are on average significantly more likely to report being very healthy by 5.2 percentage points (by 3.6 and 9.6 percentage points among Buddhists and Protestants), especially, by 16.2 percentage points among those regarding religion as being very important in their lives. Meanwhile, ATEs of religion on reporting being very happy is 17.0 among Protestants and 13.4 among those regarding religion with high importance and 11.3 among those with “regular religious attendance”.

The impact of religious beliefs on the health of the residents-Evidence from China

This study conducted empirical research on Chinese residents to explore the relationship between religious beliefs and health based on the China General Social Survey (CGSS) data for 2015. Considering the reciprocal correlations between religion and health, this paper uses an instrumental variable to recognize religion's influence on health. The instrumental variable was the number of religious sites per 10 000 residents in every province (including autonomous regions and municipalities) in 2004. The results indicate that religion had different impacts on the health of different groups in China. It was found that religion significantly improved the health of those aged 60 or older; however, for those younger than 60 years old, their health was not affected by following a religion. Second, after classifying the samples according to urban and rural areas, it was found that religion significantly improved the health of urban residents, while rural residents were not affected by this factor.

Religiosity and health: A global comparative study

The objective of this paper is to understand global connections between indicators of religiosity and health and how these differ cross-nationally. Data are from World Values Surveys (93 countries, N=121,770). Health is based on a self-assessed question about overall health. First, country-specific regressions are examined to determine the association separately in each country. Next, country-level variables and cross-level interactions are added to multilevel models to assess whether and how context affects health and religiosity slopes. Results indicate enormous variation in associations between religiosity and health across countries and religiosity indicators. Significant positive associations between all religiosity measures and health exist in only three countries (Georgia, South Africa, and USA); negative associations in only two (Slovenia and Tunisia). Macro-level variables explain some of this divergence. Greater participation in religious activity relates to better health in countries characterized as being religiously diverse. The importance in god and pondering life's meaning is more likely associated with better health in countries with low levels of the Human Development Index. Pondering life's meaning more likely associates with better health in countries that place more stringent restrictions on religious practice. Religiosity is less likely to be related to good health in communist and former communist countries of Asia and Eastern Europe. In conclusion, the association between religiosity and health is complex, being partly shaped by geopolitical and macro psychosocial contexts.

Religious Identity and Health Inequalities in Canada

In the past few decades, most new immigrants to Canada have originated from non-Christian countries. During the same period, the unaffiliation rates have sharply increased in Canada. This paper investigates whether there are any health inequalities associated with religious identity, including also the individuals who do not identify with organized religion in the analysis. The study uses the Canadian General Social Survey of 2012 (N = 23,093), focused on Caregiving and Care-receiving. Employing multivariate regression analysis and controlling for a large set of characteristics inclusive of the degree of religious commitment, individuals who identify as Protestant are found at a physical and mental health advantage, compared with Roman Catholics and most other groups. On the other hand, individuals who identify as Jehovah's Witnesses are found at a considerable physical health disadvantage. Among the unaffiliated individuals, those who have retained some ties with organized religion without formally identifying with it are found at a mental health disadvantage compared with all religious groups, as well as the secular individuals who are strictly committed to their nonreligious views. Possible causes and various implications are discussed.