Religious Attendance and Physiological Problems in Late Life

Objectives: This study queried linkages of older adults' religious attendance with their physiological health. Method: Data were from the 2005-2006 National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, nationally representative of U.S. adults aged 57-85 years. Analyses examined associations of religious attendance with biological states, potential gender variations in these linkages, and attenuation by this factor of health effects of spousal loss. Results: Religious attendance was negatively associated with a system of physiological issues, consistent with mitigation of multisystemic "weathering." Linkages were relatively uniform with inflammatory and cardiovascular but not metabolic states and were not significantly different for women than men. Effects of spousal loss on the 2 former subsystems were attenuated by regular religious attendance-in combined-gender analysis and among women, but not men. Discussion: Religious attendance may buffer older adults from physiological problems and the health effects of life events such as spousal loss. More intensive analysis is needed to explain differential linkages with specific biological subsystems.