Department of Religion, Health, and Human Values, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2013 Mar;68(2):235-45. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbs165. Epub 2013 Jan 16.
We examined the contribution of religious involvement to age-related declines in health by examining the association of worship attendance with measures of different stages in the disability continuum.
Participants included 5,863 Black and White older adults from the Chicago Health and Aging Project. Worship attendance was coded in 3 levels: very frequent (several times a week or more), frequent (several times a month), and infrequent (several times a year or less). Measures of disability included self-reported instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and activities of daily living (ADL) disability as well as observed physical function.
In multiple regression models adjusted for demographic factors, compared with those with infrequent worship attendance, those with frequent or very frequent attendance had lower levels of IADL and ADL disability and higher levels of physical performance at baseline. These associations remained significant in models that adjusted for health and cognitive status. There was no association between frequency of worship attendance and change in disability or physical function over time.
These results suggest that more frequent worship attendance does not contribute to slowing the progress of disability in late life. Future research is needed to better understand the development of the differences in disability associated with worship attendance observed at baseline.
本研究通过考察礼拜出席与残疾连续谱不同阶段的衡量指标之间的关联，检验宗教参与对健康随年龄下降的影响。
参与者包括来自芝加哥健康老龄化项目的 5863 名黑人和白人老年人。礼拜出席被编码为 3 个水平：非常频繁（每周几次或更多）、频繁（每月几次）和不频繁（每年几次或更少）。残疾衡量指标包括自我报告的工具性日常生活活动（IADL）和日常生活活动（ADL）残疾以及观察到的身体功能。
在调整人口统计学因素的多元回归模型中，与不频繁出席礼拜的人相比，频繁或非常频繁出席礼拜的人在基线时有较低水平的 IADL 和 ADL 残疾以及较高的身体表现水平。这些关联在调整健康和认知状况的模型中仍然显著。礼拜出席的频率与残疾或身体功能随时间的变化之间没有关联。
这些结果表明，更频繁的礼拜出席并不会减缓晚年残疾的进展。需要进一步的研究来更好地理解与礼拜出席相关的残疾差异的发展，这些差异在基线时就已经观察到了。
