IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v63y2006i8p2228-2241.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Religious involvement and health outcomes among older persons in Taiwan

Author

Listed:
  • Yeager, D.M.
  • Glei, Dana A.
  • Au, Melanie
  • Lin, Hui-Sheng
  • Sloan, Richard P.
  • Weinstein, Maxine

Abstract

We use data from a nationally representative, longitudinal survey of older Taiwanese to examine the relationship between religious involvement--including religious affiliation, religious attendance, beliefs, and religious practices--and self-reported measures of overall health status, mobility limitations, depressive symptoms, and cognitive function; clinical measures of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, serum interleukin-6, and 12-h urinary cortisol; and 4-year mortality. Frequency of religious attendance shows the strongest, most consistent association with health outcomes. But, with only one exception, this relationship disappears in the presence of controls for health behaviors, social networks, and prior health status. Religious attendance remains significantly associated with lower mortality even after controlling for prior self-assessed health status, but the coefficient is substantially reduced. Other aspects of religiosity are only sporadically associated with health and, in all cases, private religious practices and stronger beliefs are associated with worse health; again, this relationship disappears after controlling for prior health status. These results suggest that reverse causality may partly account for both the positive and negative correlations between religiosity and health. We find no significant associations between religious involvement and biological markers. Notably, even after controlling for prior health, participation in social activities has a more robust effect on health than religious attendance. Consequently, we question whether the purported health benefits are attributable to religion or to social activity in general.

Suggested Citation

  • Yeager, D.M. & Glei, Dana A. & Au, Melanie & Lin, Hui-Sheng & Sloan, Richard P. & Weinstein, Maxine, 2006. "Religious involvement and health outcomes among older persons in Taiwan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(8), pages 2228-2241, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:8:p:2228-2241
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(06)00259-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oman, D. & Reed, D., 1998. "Religion and mortality among the community-dwelling elderly," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 88(10), pages 1469-1475.
    2. Neal Krause, 2002. "Church-Based Social Support and Health in Old Age," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 57(6), pages 332-347.
    3. Strawbridge, W.J. & Cohen, R.D. & Shema, S.J. & Kaplan, G.A., 1997. "Frequent attendance at religious services and mortality over 28 years," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(6), pages 957-961.
    4. Robert Hummer & Richard Rogers & Charles Nam & Christopher Ellison, 1999. "Religious involvement and U.S. adult mortality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 36(2), pages 273-285, May.
    5. Reindl Benjamins, Maureen & Brown, Carolyn, 2004. "Religion and preventative health care utilization among the elderly," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 109-118, January.
    6. Neal Krause & Jersey Liang & Benjamin A. Shaw & Hidehiro Sugisawa & Hye-Kyung Kim & Yoko Sugihara, 2002. "Religion, Death of a Loved One, and Hypertension Among Older Adults in Japan," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 57(2), pages 96-107.
    7. Kark, J.D. & Shemi, G. & Friedlander, Y. & Martin, O. & Manor, O. & Blondheim, S.H., 1996. "Does religious observance promote health? Mortality in secular vs religious Kibbutzim in Israel," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 86(3), pages 341-346.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dürlinger, Florian & Fries, Jonathan & Yanagida, Takuya & Pietschnig, Jakob, 2023. "Religiosity does not prevent cognitive declines: Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    2. Buck, Anna C. & Williams, David R. & Musick, Marc A. & Sternthal, Michelle J., 2009. "An examination of the relationship between multiple dimensions of religiosity, blood pressure, and hypertension," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 314-322, January.
    3. Onwilasini Stewart & Khemika Yamarat & Karl J. Neeser & Somrat Lertmaharit & Eleanor Holroyd, 2014. "Buddhist religious practices and blood pressure among elderly in rural Uttaradit Province, northern Thailand," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), pages 119-125, March.
    4. Katherine Carroll Britt & Kathy C. Richards & Gayle Acton & Jill Hamilton & Kavita Radhakrishnan, 2023. "Association of Religious Service Attendance and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms, Cognitive Function, and Sleep Disturbances in All-Cause Dementia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-13, February.
    5. Shor, Eran & Roelfs, David J., 2015. "Social contact frequency and all-cause mortality: A meta-analysis and meta-regression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 76-86.
    6. Joanna Orr & Mark Ward & Rose Anne Kenny & Christine Ann McGarrigle, 2021. "Mini-mental state examination trajectories after age 50 by religious affiliation and practice in Ireland," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 565-574, December.
    7. Das, Aniruddha, 2022. "Religious attendance and global cognitive function: A fixed-effects cross-lagged panel modeling study of older U.S. adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    8. Ferraro, Kenneth F. & Kim, Seoyoun, 2014. "Health benefits of religion among Black and White older adults? Race, religiosity, and C-reactive protein," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 92-99.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. la Cour, Peter & Avlund, Kirsten & Schultz-Larsen, Kirsten, 2006. "Religion and survival in a secular region. A twenty year follow-up of 734 Danish adults born in 1914," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 157-164, January.
    2. Janice Bell Meisenhelder & Emily N. Chandler, 2000. "Faith, Prayer, and Health Outcomes in Elderly Native Americans," Clinical Nursing Research, , vol. 9(2), pages 191-203, May.
    3. Jon Anson, 2004. "The Migrant Mortality Advantage: A 70 Month Follow-up of the Brussels Population," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 20(3), pages 191-218, September.
    4. Jon Anson, 2010. "Beyond Material Explanations: Family Solidarity and Mortality, a Small Area‐level Analysis," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 36(1), pages 27-45, March.
    5. Tariq Jalees & Ernest C de Run, 2014. "Body Image of Pakistani Consumers," Journal of Management Sciences, Geist Science, Iqra University, Faculty of Business Administration, vol. 1(1), pages 16-34, March.
    6. Yingying Sun & Yue Zhang, 2019. "Who Is Happier in China? Exploring Determinant Factors Using Religion as a Moderator," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-17, November.
    7. Maselko, Joanna & Kubzansky, Laura D., 2006. "Gender differences in religious practices, spiritual experiences and health: Results from the US General Social Survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(11), pages 2848-2860, June.
    8. Agnieszka Sowa & Stanisława Golinowska & Dorly Deeg & Andrea Principi & Georgia Casanova & Katherine Schulmann & Stephania Ilinca & Ricardo Rodrigues & Amilcar Moreira & Henrike Gelenkamp, 2016. "Predictors of religious participation of older Europeans in good and poor health," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 145-157, June.
    9. Neal Krause & R. Hayward, 2013. "Self-Forgiveness and Mortality in Late Life," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(1), pages 361-373, March.
    10. O'Reilly, Dermot & Rosato, Michael, 2008. "Religious affiliation and mortality in Northern Ireland: Beyond Catholic and Protestant," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(7), pages 1637-1645, April.
    11. Bruce Headey & Jongsay Yong, 2019. "Happiness and Longevity: Unhappy People Die Young, Otherwise Happiness Probably Makes No Difference," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 713-732, April.
    12. Mindaugas Sinkevicius, 2016. "Intention To Purchase Alcohol By Adults In The Country In Transition: The Effects Of Health Consciousness, Self-Efficacy And Religion Importance," Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University, vol. 7(2).
    13. Hayward, R. David & Krause, Neal, 2014. "The effect of belonging to an alcohol-proscribing religious group on the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 1-8.
    14. Avni, Shlomit & Filc, Dani & Davidovitch, Nadav, 2015. "The Israeli Medical Association's discourse on health inequity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 119-126.
    15. Schultz, Jennifer & O'Brien, A. Maureen & Tadesse, Bedassa, 2008. "Social capital and self-rated health: Results from the US 2006 social capital survey of one community," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(4), pages 606-617, August.
    16. Lawrence, Elizabeth M. & Rogers, Richard G. & Wadsworth, Tim, 2015. "Happiness and longevity in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 115-119.
    17. Ferraro, Kenneth F. & Kim, Seoyoun, 2014. "Health benefits of religion among Black and White older adults? Race, religiosity, and C-reactive protein," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 92-99.
    18. Makridis, Christos A., 2022. "When houses of worship go empty: The effects of state restrictions on well-being among religious adherents," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    19. Charles L. Richman, 2004. "Kibbutzim in Constant Transition," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 16(2), pages 125-138, September.
    20. Văidean, Viorela Ligia & Achim, Monica Violeta, 2022. "When more is less: Do information and communication technologies (ICTs) improve health outcomes? An empirical investigation in a non-linear framework," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:8:p:2228-2241. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.