Religion and mortality among the community-dwelling elderly.
OBJECTIVE
This study analyzed the prospective association between attending religious services and all-cause mortality to determine whether the association is explainable by 6 confounding factors: demographics, health status, physical functioning, health habits, social functioning and support, and psychological state.


METHODS
The association between self-reported religious attendance and subsequent mortality over 5 years for 1931 older residents of Marin County, California, was examined by proportional hazards regression. Interaction terms of religion with social support were used to explore whether other forms of social support could substitute for religion and diminish its protective effect.


RESULTS
Persons who attended religious services had lower mortality than those who did not (age- and sex-adjusted relative hazard [RH] = 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.52, 0.78). Multivariate adjustment reduced this relationship only slightly (RH = 0.76; 95% CI = 0.62, 0.94), primarily by including physical functioning and social support. Contrary to hypothesis, religious attendance tended to be slightly more protective for those with high social support.


CONCLUSIONS
Lower mortality rates for those who attend religious services are only partly explained by the 6 possible confounders listed above. Psychodynamic and other explanations need further investigation.
Buck Center for Research in Aging, Novato, Calif. 94948, USA. oman@stat.berkeley.edu
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D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012067:Religion; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012944:Social Support