Study Ties Health to Religious Practices : Behavior: Report concludes that active participation, especially in mainline denominations, can raise wellness levels.

Those who practice their faith regularly--especially members of mainline denominations--are healthier than those who do not.

That is the conclusion of a study conducted at Purdue University by medical sociologist Kenneth F. Ferraro. The results were published recently in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

In the study, responses were gathered from 1,473 people nationwide. The survey was controlled to eliminate such health-influencing factors as age, income and education.

“After we controlled for those factors, we found that religion was having a surprisingly strong effect,” he says. “It proved to be nearly as significant as age and social class.”

In determining religious levels, respondents were asked how often they pray, whether they consider themselves strong in faith, how often they attend synagogue or church and whether they read religious literature.

Categorized by those factors as either “practicing” religion or “non-practicing,” the subjects’ comparative levels of health were gauged. The study found that twice as many “non-practicing” as “practicing” subjects reported health problems.

Nine percent, or 133 of those in the non-practicing category reported poor health, while only 4%, or 59 people, in the practicing category, reported poor health.

Also, while 26%, or 383, of those who said they never attend worship reported excellent health, 36%, or 530, of those reporting weekly attendance reported excellent health.

Ferraro says the main religious factor affecting health was found to be participation, but religious affiliation also turned out to be significant.

For example, the findings showed that people affiliated with the more mainline denominations such as Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans and Roman Catholics have better health.

In contrast, he says people reporting religious affiliation with such groups as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons and Christian Scientists and some Baptists showed lower health levels.

“Whether or not people are actively involved in their religion makes the biggest difference in health status,” he says. “However, the data also told us that the kind of religion they participate in makes a difference, too.”

He says future studies will explore reasons for that difference. He notes that some groups restrict medical practices--Jehovah’s Witnesses do not allow blood transfusions and Christian Scientists shun various medical treatments, for example.

But he notes that some conservative faiths prohibit smoking and eliminate caffeine from diets with “positive health results.” This is the case with Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists, who also promote vegetarianism.

Past studies have shown that Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists have lower rates of cancer, heart and circulatory diseases and greater longevity than the general population.

Another recent study at Northern Illinois University in De Kalb found consistent correlations between “religiosity” and health-related behaviors.

Findings of that study, conducted by William Oleckno, professor of community health, and Michael J. Blacconiere of Hines Veterans Administration Hospital near Chicago, were published in Psychological Reports.

In a survey of a representative sample of 1,077 Northern Illinois students from various class years and academic majors, they were categorized for “religiosity” and “wellness.”

“Religiosity” was based on frequency of attendance at worship and stated strength of religious commitment, while “wellness” was measured by such factors as the number of illnesses reported, avoidance of smoking, drugs and alcohol, and use of automobile seat belts.

“There was a positive association between religiosity scores and each of the dimensions of wellness,” Oleckno said.

Of the sample, 17% routinely attended religious services, another 17% attended often, 47% sometimes and 19% never.

Besides finding that those rating high in “religiosity” also rated high on “wellness,” Oleckno says there also was a relationship between low “religiosity” and illnesses, smoking, alcohol and drug use.

“We were surprised that the correlations came out so clean--there was a dramatic correlation,” he said.