REGULAR ATTENDANCE at religious services reduces the risk of death by almost 20 per cent, new research claims.
Using data from the Women's Health Initiative Study of over 92,000 women in the US, researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York looked at how women's religious service attendance and the degree to which they derived strength and comfort from religion affected their mortality.
The results, published in the current issue of the Journal of Psychology and Health, found that women aged 50 to 79 who attended religious services once per week showed a 20 per cent reduction in mortality from all causes compared with those who did not attend services at all.
However, there was no consistent link between religious observance and death from cardiovascular disease over the 7½ year follow-up period.
The researchers excluded any effect that may have arisen because of the women's involvement with community groups or other activities that promote a strong social life. These factors have been linked to overall wellness in previous studies.
"Interestingly, the protection against mortality provided by religion cannot be entirely explained by expected factors that include enhanced social support of friends or family or from lifestyle choices and reduced smoking and alcohol consumption," said Dr Eliezer Schnall, the lead author of the study.
"There is something else here that we don't quite understand". "The next step is to figure out how the effect of religiosity is translated into biological mechanisms that affect rates of survival," co-author, Dr Sylvia Smoller said.
The investigators are considering analysing psychological profiles to see if they can explain the apparent protective effects of attending religious services.
The Women's Health Initiative is a national, long-term study funded by the US National Institutes of Health; it is designed to address a broad range of women's health issues.
The study previously identified the link between Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and an increased risk of cardiac death, which led to major changes in the prescribing of HRT to menopausal women.