Religiosity and Health Through the Decades: Is There a Gender Difference?

Slight religiosity associated with a lower incidence of any fracture among healthy people in a multireligious country

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the degree of religiosity and subsequent fractures and a decrease in bone mineral density in a Japanese population.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective longitudinal study at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo, Japan, from 2005 to 2018. All participants who underwent voluntary health check-ups were included. Our outcomes were any fractures and the change in T-score from baseline to each visit. We compared these outcomes by the self-reported degree of religiosity (not at all; slightly; somewhat; very) and adjusted for potential confounders.

RESULTS

A total of 65,898 participants were included in our study. Their mean age was 46.2(SD:12.2) years, and 33,014(50.1%) were male. During a median follow-up of 2,500 days (interquartile range (IQR):987-3,970), 2,753(4.2%) experienced fractures, and their mean delta T-score was -0.03%(SD:18.3). In multivariable longitudinal analyses, the slightly religious group had a statistically lower adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for a fracture than the nonreligious group(AOR:0.81,95% confidence interval(CI):0.71 to 0.92).

CONCLUSIONS

We demonstrated that slightly religious people, but not somewhat or very religious people, had a lower incidence of fracture than nonreligious individuals, although the T-scores were similar regardless of the degree of religiosity.

Throw BABE Out With the Bathwater? Canadian Atheists are No Less Healthy than the Religious

The belief-as-benefit effect (BABE) is a broad term for the positive association between religion/spirituality (R/S) and health outcomes. Functionally, religious variables and religious identities predict greater wellness, which implies that atheists should report worse health relative to religious groups. Using Cycle 29 of the cross-sectional General Social Survey from Statistics Canada (N > 15,900), I explored health differences in stress, life satisfaction, subjective physical wellbeing, and subjective mental wellbeing across R/S identities (atheists, agnostics, Nones, Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Religions). Results indicated that (1). religious attendance, prayer, and religiosity were generally unrelated to all health outcomes for all R/S identities, (2). averagely religious atheists reported health parity with averagely religious members of all other R/S identities, and (3). when comparing a maximally nonreligious atheist group against several maximally religiously affiliated groups, atheists largely showed health parity. If both low R/S and high R/S are associated with comparable wellness, researchers should actively question whether R/S is genuinely salutary.

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.

Religious Transitions Among Baby Boomers From Young Adulthood to Later Life: Associations with Psychological Well-Being Over 45 Years

We used classification analysis to examine change in religiosity among baby boomers from young adulthood to early old age and how religiosity transition patterns are associated with psychological well-being in later life. In addition, we tested the gender difference in the above association. We applied latent class and latent transition analysis to 392 baby boomers who participated in the Longitudinal Study of Generations in Wave-1 (1971) and Wave-9 (2016). We identified three classes describing religiosity at each wave (strongly religious, doctrinally religious, and weakly religious), and considered five types of change or stability in religious class membership from Wave-1 to Wave-9. Multiple regression with gender interactions revealed that men who stayed strongly religious over the period reported better psychological well-being compared to men who declined in their religiosity; no such pattern was found for women. Our findings suggest that maintaining strong religiosity over the life course was beneficial for baby boom men in later life.

Assessing Religious Commitment in a Multicultural Inpatient Setting: A Psychometric Evaluation of the 10-item Belief into Action Scale

Religious and spiritual (R/S) issues impact medical decision-making, particularly among highly R/S populations, for whom existing measures have limitations in identifying levels of R/S commitment. The Belief into Action (BIAc) scale was designed for this purpose and was never tested among hospitalized patients. We interviewed 152 patients (51% men) with a mean age of 48.9 years (SD = 15.2), having either cancer (27%), cardiovascular (26%), rheumatic (21%), or other diseases (26%). Cronbach alpha was .82 and a 3-factor structure (subjective, social, and private religious commitment) was the most robust. Results suggest the BIAc has adequate convergent, divergent, and incremental validity compared to other well-established questionnaires and is appropriate for the inpatient setting.