title: Religious Attendance and Biological Functioning: A Multiple Specification Approach.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study explores the role of religious attendance across a wide range of biological markers.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data are drawn from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project to assess continuous and categorical biomarker specifications.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Across specifications, higher levels of attendance are associated with lower levels of pulse rate and overall allostatic load. Depending on the specification, higher levels of attendance are also associated with lower levels of body mass, diastolic blood pressure, C-reactive protein, and Epstein-Barr virus. Attendance is unrelated to dehydroepiandrosterone, systolic blood pressure, and glycosylated hemoglobin across specifications.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study confirms that religious attendance is associated with healthier biological functioning in later life. Additional research is needed to verify these patterns with other data sources and to test viable mediators of the association between religious attendance and biological risk.
authors.affiliation: The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA terrence.hill@soc.utah.edu.
authors.forename: Terrence D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.affiliation: University of Louisville, USA.
authors.forename: Sunshine M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Rote
authors.affiliation: University of Texas at San Antonio, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Ellison
authors.affiliation: Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA.
authors.forename: Amy M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Burdette
keywords: allostatic load; biological risk; religion; religious attendance