Patterns: Better Health for Religiously Observant

Many people believe that going to religious services may be good for the afterlife. But researchers have found that it may not be so bad in the here and now.

A new study, which followed the health of more than 90,000 women over an average of more than seven years each, found that those who attended services were one-fifth less likely to die than those who did not.

The subject has been controversial, and the authors of the study, which appears in Psychology & Health, were at pains not to appear to be making a link between religion itself and health.

“I don’t want to go beyond what the facts are showing us, and I want to be cautious,” said the lead author of the study, Eliezer Schnall of Yeshiva University. Read Article

By Eric Nagourney