title: Prospective prediction of suicide in a nationally representative sample: religious service attendance as a protective factor.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous research into religious service attendance as a protective factor against suicide has been conducted only retrospectively, with psychological autopsy studies using proxy informants of completed suicide, rather than prospectively, with completed suicide as a dependent variable.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether individuals who frequently attended religious services were less likely to die by suicide than those who did not attend so frequently.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analysed data from a nationally representative sample (n = 20 014), collected in the USA between 1988 and 1994, and follow-up mortality data from baseline to the end of 2006.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cox proportional hazard regression analysis indicated that those who frequently attended religious services were less likely to die by suicide than those who did not attend, after accounting for the effects of other relevant risk factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Frequent religious service attendance is a long-term protective factor against suicide.
authors.affiliation: Evan M. Kleiman, MA, Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia; Richard T. Liu, PhD, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University Alpert Medical School, Bradley Hospital, East Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
authors.forename: Evan M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Kleiman
authors.forename: Richard T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012067:Religion; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012923:Social Class; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult