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A new nationwide study of obituaries has found that people with religious affiliations lived nearly four years longer than those with no ties to religion. Religious affiliation had nearly as strong an effect on longevity as gender does, which is a matter of years of life,” said Laura Wallace, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in psychology at The Ohio State University.
The researchers found that part of the reason for the boost in longevity came from the fact that many religiously affiliated people also volunteered and belonged to social organizations, which previous research has linked to living longer.The study provides persuasive evidence that there is a relationship between religious participation and how long a person lives.
The effects of religion on longevity might depend in part on the personality and average religiosity of the cities where people live, the first study involved 505 obituaries published in the Des Moines Register in January and February 2012. In addition to noting the age and any religious affiliation of those who died, the researchers also documented sex, marital status and the number of social and volunteer activities listed.
Results showed that those whose obit listed a religious affiliation lived 9.45 years longer than those who didn’t. The gap shrunk to 6.48 years after gender and marital status were taken into account. The second study included 1,096 obituaries from 42 major cities in the United States published on newspaper websites between August 2010 and August 2011. In this study, people whose obits mentioned a religious affiliation lived an average of 5.64 years longer than those whose obits did not, which shrunk to 3.82 years after gender and marital status were considered.
Many studies have shown that people who volunteer and participate in social groups tend to live longer than others. So the researchers combined data from both studies to see if the volunteer and social opportunities that religious groups offer might explain the longevity boost. Results showed that this was only part of the reason why religious people lived longer.
The rules and norms of many religions that restrict unhealthy practices such as alcohol, drug use and having sex with many partners. Many religions promote stress-reducing practices that may improve health, such as gratitude, prayer or meditation. In highly religious cities where conformity was important, religious people tended to live longer than non-religious people.
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