Depression and religiosity in older age

Abstract

We investigated the hypothesis that religious commitment could help counter general affective distress, accompanying depressive symptoms, in older age. A total of 34 older adults, all catholic believers, completed self-reported questionnaires on the presence of depressive symptoms, religiosity, health, worry, and the style of coping with stress. The depressive and non-depressive subgroups were then created. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 50%, with the substantial predominance of females. Regression analyses indicate that health expectations and worry significantly worsen with increasing intensity of depressive symptoms. The results further show that religious engagement was not different between the depressive and non-depressive subgroups. Religiosity failed to influence the intensity of depressive symptoms or the strategy of coping with stress in either subgroup, although a trend was noted for better health expectations with increasing religious engagement in depressive subjects. We conclude that religiosity is unlikely to significantly ameliorate dysphoric distress accompanying older age.