title: Dimensions of religious involvement and leukocyte telomere length.
abstract: Although numerous studies suggest that religious involvement is associated with a wide range of favorable health outcomes, it is unclear whether this general pattern extends to cellular aging. In this paper, we tested whether leukocyte telomere length varies according to several dimensions of religious involvement. We used cross-sectional data from the Nashville Stress and Health Study (2011-2014), a large probability sample of 1252 black and white adults aged 22 to 69 living in Davidson County, TN, USA. Leukocyte telomere length was measured using the monochrome multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction method with albumin as the single-copy reference sequence. Dimensions of religious involvement included religiosity, religious support, and religious coping. Our multivariate analyses showed that religiosity (an index of religious attendance, prayer frequency, and religious identity) was positively associated with leukocyte telomere length, even with adjustments for religious support, religious coping, age, gender, race, education, employment status, income, financial strain, stressful life events, marital status, family support, friend support, depressive symptoms, smoking, heavy drinking, and allostatic load. Unlike religiosity, religious support and religious coping were unrelated to leukocyte telomere length across models. Depressive symptoms, smoking, heavy drinking, and allostatic load failed to explain any of the association between religiosity and telomere length. To our knowledge, this is the first population-based study to link religious involvement and cellular aging. Although our data suggest that adults who frequently attend religious services, pray with regularity, and consider themselves to be religious tend to exhibit longer telomeres than those who attend and pray less frequently and do not consider themselves to be religious, additional research is needed to establish the mechanisms underlying this association.
authors.affiliation: The University of Arizona, School of Sociology, Social Sciences Building, Room 427, 1145 E. South Campus Drive, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. Electronic address: tdhill@email.arizona.edu.
authors.forename: Terrence D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.affiliation: University of Texas at San Antonio, Department of Sociology, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA. Electronic address: christopher.ellison@utsa.edu.
authors.forename: Christopher G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Ellison
authors.affiliation: Florida State University, Department of Sociology, 526 Bellamy Building, 113 Collegiate Loop, PO Box 3062270, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA. Electronic address: aburdette@fsu.edu.
authors.forename: Amy M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Burdette
authors.affiliation: Florida State University, Department of Sociology, 526 Bellamy Building, 113 Collegiate Loop, PO Box 3062270, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA. Electronic address: jrtaylor@fsu.edu.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt University, Department of Biological Sciences, Box 351634 Station B, Nashville, TN 37235, USA. Electronic address: katherine.friedman@vanderbilt.edu.
authors.forename: Katherine L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Friedman
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D057229:Alcoholics / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000145:classification; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012067:Religion; D000074285:Smokers / Q000523:psychology; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D016615:Telomere / Q000145:classification*; D013714:Tennessee
keywords: Allostatic load; Drinking; Religion; Religious coping; Religious support; Smoking; Social support; Telomere length