Abstract
To examine the association between frequency of religious service attendance and an index of cumulative physiological dysregulation as measured by allostatic load (AL) (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, waist/hip ratio, high-density lipoprotein and total cholesterol, glycosylated hemoglobin, cortisol, serum dihydroepiandrosterone sulfate, norepinephrine, and epinephrine). There is growing empirical evidence of a positive relationship between religious engagement and better clinical health outcomes. However, studies exploring the subclinical levels of physiological dysregulation are rare; hence, the physiological processes underpinning the religion-health relationship are not well understood. In 1988, 853 participants from the MacArthur Successful Aging Study provided information on the frequency of religious service attendance as well as blood and urine samples needed to obtain measures for a ten-item cumulative AL index. Gender-stratified multivariate linear regression models were used to estimate the direction and magnitude of the association between weekly religious service attendance and AL. At least weekly religious service attendance was associated with lower AL levels among women (b = -0.47; p < .01), but not among men (b = 0.02; p = .88) in models that statistically controlled for age, income, education, marital status, and level of physical functioning. This relationship could not be attributed to the association between religious attendance and any one or two of the components of the AL index. It also was not explained by either higher physical functioning or social integration. Cumulative physiological dysregulation may be one mechanism through which religious engagement may influence a diverse range of clinically relevant health outcomes.
Highlights
There is growing evidence that religious engagement is associated with better physical and psychological health [1,2]
The measures of social networks and social supports were drawn from various sources (38 – 41) and the present analysis focuses on the presence of particular types of social ties and the extent to which these ties provide emotional and instrumental support
Women reported higher levels of religious engagement than men; 65% of women reported attending religious services weekly compared with 50% of men (2(1,853) ϭ 19.4; p Ͻ .001)
Summary
There is growing evidence that religious engagement is associated with better physical and psychological health [1,2]. The pathways and mechanisms through which religious engagement may affect health are far from understood, and the physiological processes underlying the religion-health connection remain largely unknown [10]. To address this issue, researchers have begun to examine preclinical biomarkers associated with religious engagement as a way to understand how it may influence biological changes that affect disease processes (10 –14). Researchers have begun to examine preclinical biomarkers associated with religious engagement as a way to understand how it may influence biological changes that affect disease processes (10 –14) Studies that address this question focus on individual param-
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