The Science Of The Relationship Between Church Attendance And How Long You Live
For many people attending religious services is a part of daily life. You wouldn't want to go a day with out praising thanks to the supreme being or beings which you believe have graced you with the very essence that is your life. Regardless of your religious affiliation for many this process involves attending services at a church/synagogue/mosque/temple etc. Believers ascribe this action of attending services as necessary to attain the good graces from the god(s) which they may worship.
Non-believers ascribe these actions to be a fools errand, pointless, a waste of time. The intelligent from either group (believers and non-believers) know that it's best to let others live their lives and not be confrontational about any of this, because if believing or not believing make you happy and your beliefs or personal mantra do not involve harming others, then both courses are a net positive for the world because they are instilling happiness.
Science and religion, contrary to the thoughts of some, can intermix (and oftentimes do mix well) as in many cases both are attempting to explain the natural world. Many of humanities great thinkers of old were religious people and the evidence driven scientific method can be well applied to provide a physical and testable justification to many long held religious beliefs. It can also be utilized to prove the impossibility of others. However I digress, today we discuss the concept of lifespan, church attendance, and utilizing the scientific method to look at the correlation between the two.
To get at this we will (very briefly) look at a recent study published in the journal PLoS One titled "Church attendance, allostatic load and mortality in middle aged adults".
In this study the authors were analyzing the mortality data of two groups of people, those who regularly attended religious services and those who did not.
Who lives longer? After answering that question, the next level is to think about why. Lets take a look at the study:
Studying The Relationship Between Health And Religion Is As Old As The Hills
This isn't exactly a new concept, religion and health. People love to study what is important to them and it should be of no surprise to anyone that both religion and personal health are quite important to many people! So it should also be of no surprise that there have been prior studies looking for relationships between the two, where researchers have described both a beneficial link ([2], [3]), as well as a lack of a benefit. [4]
Conflicting results in the literature are like a homing beacon for researchers, because controversy breeds impactful results. Researchers in the past have hypothesized that a link between religious participation and health benefits could be due to behavioral changes that are a part of being religious (you don't do certain things because the code of the religion tells you not to, so you live longer, would be an example of this line of thinking). Regular attendance of church services may also reduce stress levels (and we all know stress is very bad for our health). [5]
The researchers in todays article wanted to take this a step further, they wanted to take a look at whether a reduced risk of death was associated with a lower amount of "allostatic load." This term (allostatic load or AL) basically just refers to the accumulation of the effects of stress on the body. It can be measured by looking at hormone levels [6], and higher amounts of AL are indeed associated with earlier death.
To simplify things they focused on adults between the ages of 40 and 65 years.
What Did They Find?
This first (and only plot) I will show you is pretty easy to interpret. Here the authors were studying a subset of 5549 adults in this age range (3782 were church going people, and 1667 were not church going). You can see above that the amount of people who survived between the ages of 40 and 65 decreased faster for non church goers then it did for people who regularly attended services.
There are a lot of factors to take into consideration when looking at data like this
Many of those factors pertain to this "allostatic load" that we discussed above. There are a lot of contributors including blood pressure, cholestrol... etc. What you can take away from all of this data is that the non-church goers had more issues with blood pressure and cholesterol levels then did people who attended church services.
The authors also did a direct comparison
The authors compared the two groups directly and adjusted the data to account for factors like age, gender and whether or not people had chronic medical issues. When they did this they found that people who went to church regularly had a reduction in mortality rates from "any cause" by 46%. That is a lot.
What was most surprising is that when controlling for these "allostatic load" contributors, there was still a benefit to lifespan for those who attended religious services vs. those who did not.
Conclusions
The authors conclude that their findings are consistent with the hypothesis that people who go to church more have lower stress levels and this in part contributes to their longer lifespans. However the authors observed that when controlling for these factors there was still an additional benefit observed for the church goers. Based on this the authors concluded that there are other potential factors outside the reduction in stress that also contribute to longevity.
The authors have shown here that there is a clear association between religious participation and health benefits. However that's just an association, and further studies would need to be done to look at what specifically CAUSES this apparent relationship. Looks like Science and Religion will have to team up some more to better dive into understanding the why. Appropriate, as that same question is what drives both science and religion to begin with.
Acknowledged Limitations
The biological markers studied by researchers here are not a complete picture of what constitutes health, and don't examine things like how people immune systems are functioning, or what their inflammation levels are. Additionally the authors took care to control for educational background and socioeconomic status of the participants. The religious participants in this study consistently scored higher in both of those two areas, and this still may skew the results.
TL;DR?
People who attend church services live longer than those who do not. It is not yet clear what the underlying reason is for this observation. There is a lot of studying left to be done!
Sources
- http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177618
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2654362/
- http://www.annalsofepidemiology.org/article/S1047-2797(05)00379-0/fulltext
- https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/geront/gnt002
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18282566
- http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199801153380307
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One reason for the longer lifespan of religious (or church going) people could be that they are in average more conservative and thus in general prefer a more riskless life than non-religious people (that's pure speculation from my side though, but in my eyes seems to be possible/reasonable).
Some time ago I mentioned an assumed relation between certain genes and the tendency of becoming religious (or more carefully said: 'spiritual' in general).
In evolution these genes could have been successful as believing in God might have similar positive effects like the strong believe in placebos: higher self-confidence and optimism (there is someone almighty who cares about you) may have positive effects on the cardiovascular and the immune system (sources are to be found in the already mentioned article).
In fact the general lifestyle choices of church going people are one such aspect of this that is discussed in the literature. I'd say your spot on.
That is an interesting thought. Indeed 'spiritual' is probably the better context for a discussion with regards to genetics, all religious thought is spiritual, but not all spiritual thought is religious. Were such a genetic link present, it would influence the mental processes surrounding the more general context ie spirituality.
Finding a genetic link to spirituality would be similar to finding the precise genetic links to intelligence. It's likely very complicated (regulation wise). Biology is quite the tangled web.
VMAT2 is one of the 'candidates'. :)
Didn't know about this, will have to investigate further.
You still have the chance to read my religion article as a start. :)
If the first part of it is not scientific enough just skip it. ;-)
I think the matter is rather complex, and we still don't know enough altogether (but at least enough to assume that genes play a role when it comes to the individual predisposition of being 'spiritual' - like for example other genes enhance the predisposition for an affinity for drugs).
Interesting, what interests me is why there is a general perception that religious or church going people are more conservative. Also conservative in what way?
Again what I answer now is partly speculative, but I will try to explain my thoughts: conservative in this case means (for example) to prefer following clear structured daily (and weekly) routines where going to church is one of them. It means to have a tendency of following rules (live healthy, drink less alcohol, don't change partner all the time ... all these 'activities' can enhance the risk of diseases). People who prefer things which they know, whom they trust may have fewer accidents than adventurous ones who like to explore unknown terrain, try out new things (and thoughts). This or similar could be the reasoning ...
Thanks that is a pretty coherent model. I think human beings yearn for continuity and routine to a large extent. So that kind of lifestyle may cause lower stress levels?
It may ... and it could be more healthy and riskless.
Yeah but you could also die from boredom...
:-)
This is all about statistics. As long as more people die because of stress, drugs and accidents than because of boredom, conservative church goers should live longer than progressive adventurers. :)
True. How could we find out how many more people die from boredom. It could be a silent killer. Maybe when people get really bored they get stressed, use drugs and get into accidents hehe
I'd put money on the idea that earnest religious belief results in a greater overall sense of well being and reduced anxiety. A lifetime of that, alone, has to help. Going to church regularly is probably akin to a consostent meditative practice as well, which is also beneficial to your health.
I don't any of these things which is why I'm a helpless neurotic I suppose
Put two competing religious factions next to each other (Israel and Palestine?) and the positive health effects quickly go away! :P
It's not earnest religious belief itself I think that confers those benefits, but being the faction in power. Jehovah's witnesses probably don't enjoy as many health benefits!
I don't entirely agree -i think the primary benefits come from a sense of solace about the nature of existence which non religious people struggle with.
Did you have a power outage in the middle of that sentence?!
Yeah I won't insist, cos it's more of a hunch. I myself meditate so I'm not against the idea that religiosity confers some benefit, but I suspect most of it can be attributed to simply having lots of people around you who share the same worldview. Group therapy might work for similar reasons. Even if you have a group of people who believe "everything sucks", still they'll get a psychological boost from knowing that others share in their pessimistic worldview.
Edit: Oh okay you fixed it! Or something went wrong on my end!
Yeah esteem has been acting wierd when it comes to comments and edits. Not sure why
The data from this publication would certainly support that. The reduction in blood pressure alone is strong evidence in support of the anxiety reduction.
They did make a point to say that stress/anxiety reduction alone did not explain the difference in longevity completely. So there is clearly more to look into in this regard.
Finding a way to calm yourself inside is certainly a good thing to try to incorporate into your life. I think that's something that I too could learn to do better... I'm always stressing about one thing or another.
Well, but I guess this numbers will be close to those ones into militant politics, for example. My guess is that this "well-being" is related to feel part of a community and feel you have some purpose. I should do an study, though :)
With out one we are just speculating. It's fun but we can't prove something until we experiment and study. :)
But, to experiment you need the hypotheses first, just saying ;)
Thank you for the post! Attending church and learning from the sermons are tools to help you live a happier healthier life. Each time I leave mass I come away with some learning points and feeling uplifted. Thanks again!
I am glad that you connect with them and they make your life better :)
Just gave this blogger a follow because of the QUALITY of his contents. Super informative.
Thank you, your kind words mean a lot to me!
Looking forward to reading more of your future posts. :)
Thanks for sharing. I have only been a christian for 3 years. I now have a new found peace in my life and am living with purpose that is greater than me. The worry in my life is gone because I am now connected 'spiritually'. These factors line up with your findings and maybe why Christians may have a longer life.
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for reading, I am glad your spirituality is benefiting you!
I am sure research will move to the realm of psychology with this.
Yeah it seems like a logical direction to go.
As an atheist I'm aware of this 'field' studying the relationship between belief and health, and as you say the results are mixed, so I was glad to be made aware of yet another study on this issue.
For myself, if I were to do a study in this field, I would maybe take the question in the first pic and change it to: 'does being part of a majority lead to a longer life?' I wonder if the early Christians who had to meet in secret had the same health benefits as the people in this study.
As (again) an atheist, I would ask, what does 'mix well' mean? There have been medical doctors who mixed medicine with serial killing really well. Doesn't mean one did not promote the exact opposite cause of the other. Fire and water can coexist, but not exactly mix, and I'd say the same goes for religiosity and science.
Feels good to finally comment on a post of yours! :P
A better question would be to ask, does taking part in a minority religion also provide similar benefits? It is clear that the major source of the benefit are psychological, and in the case of christian religions, being a part of a majority group may indeed play a contributing factor.
An astute question, however I posit that it would be difficult to answer as they lived in entirely different societal conditions. Difficult to compare. I come back to my above question of, is this benefit shared by small sects, or shared by religious people practicing in hostile areas (where religion is forbidden for example)?
I would say 'mix well' in this context is cooperate in a way that is mutually beneficial in humanities quest to address fundamental questions of nature.
Sure
And I am glad you have! I always enjoy our chats!
P.S. You must also keep in mind that I am not a religious person, just discussing the data. I try my best to be welcoming to people of all belief systems in this regard though. If we can all unite around science, then that is good enough for me.
Until we have a working time machine, your research proposal makes much more practical sense! :P
Agreed with people uniting around science.
I could go for that time machine though. :D
Interesting article. So much to me depends on finding the church group where one feels at home.
Indeed
Upvoted and RESTEEMED!
Thank you!
I watched a show in Discovery channel (I think) years ago where they studied the brains of monks when they meditate. I cant remember the specifics but they were curious about the higher state the monks claim to enter when they meditate and connect with the higher spirit (I forgot the terms ack!). I'm curious if it's the same for this. Like going to church provides the brain the right combination to trigger physiologic responses that boost the body positively like the immune system for example. All in all, this is very interesting. I should find that show in the internet.
It's an interesting thought. I do not know what the answer would be, but clearly there is evidence here that further study could reveal some fascinating data about the workings of our minds and bodies.