The research study titled ‘Church Attendance, Allostatic Load and Mortality in Middle – Aged Adults‘ by Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee – USA reveals that middle-aged people between the ages of 40 and 65, who attend worships services decrease their chances of an early death by 55 percent.
According to Mr Marino Bruce, who is a professor at a private research education institution, Vanderbilt University, these findings support the overall hypothesis that increased religiosity – as determined by attendance at worship services – is associated with less stress and enhanced longevity.’
The findings held true across faith traditions, said Bruce in a video Vanderbilt University posted on YouTube.
“We found in our study that actually attending church is actually good for your health, particularly for those who are between the ages of 40 and 65,” said Bruce.
“For those who did not attend church at all, they were twice as likely to die prematurely than those who did who attended church at some point over the last year,” He added.
Bruce, a social and behavioral scientist, is a primary author of the study along with Keith Norris, a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The study has nine other co-authors, too.
Of the 5,449 people of all races and both sexes who were surveyed from publicly available data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 64 percent were regular worshipers. Studies found that those who did not attend regular or any worship service had a higher stress load score than those who did.
The researchers used data which is collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, for the study.
The effects of attendance at worship services remained after education, poverty, health insurance and social support status were all taken into consideration. However, the study did not address the effects of frequency of worship, Christian Today notes.
