Sunday, June 06, 2004
Religious patients fare better, studies indicate
In a recent study published in the "Journal of the American Geriatrics Society," Duke University's Dr. Harold Koenig found that in a survey of 838 Duke hospital patients 50 and older, those who categorized themselves as religious or spiritual were less depressed, more cooperative and had "better cognitive function and greater cooperativeness."
In "Handbook of Religion and Health" (Oxford University Press, $72), researchers Koenig, David B. Larson and Michael E. McCullough found that more than 1,200 studies had been conducted about the impact of religion on mental and physical health.
In a random national sample of 21,204 adults from 1987 to 1995, researchers found that of the 2,016 who had died, the religious lived an average of seven years longer. Those who never attended religious services lived to an average age of 75.3 -- compared with an average age of 81.9 for those who attended services once a week and 82.9 for people who went more than once a week.
In 1998, researchers published results of a random sample of 1,931 residents 55 and older living in Marin County, Calif. There were 454 deaths during a five-year follow-up period, and those who attended even an occasional service were 36 percent less likely to have died than those who never went.
Permalink
