(no subject)

[jeneralist]

Interesting article in this month's Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine: "Religious Attendance: More Cost-Effective Than Lipitor?"



Here's the abstract of the article, written by Daniel E. Hall, MD, MDiv:

Background: A recent meta-analysis demonstrates a robust but small association between weekly religious attendance and longer life. However, the practical significance of this finding remains controversial.

Methods: Age specific, actuarial death rates were modified according to published odds ratios to model the additional years of life attributable to: (1) weekly religious attendance; (2) regular physical exercise; and (3) statin-type lipid-lowering agents. Secondary analyses estimated the approximate cost for each additional year of life gained.

Results: Weekly attendance at religious services accounts for an additional 2 to 3 life-years compared with 3 to 5 life-years for physical exercise and 2.5 to 3.5 life-years for statin-type agents. The approximate cost per life-year gained was between $2,000 and $6,000 for regular exercise, $3,000 and $10,000 for regular religious attendance, and between $4,000 and $14,000 for statin-type agents.

Conclusion: The real-world, practical significance of regular religious attendance is comparable to commonly recommended therapies, and rough estimates even suggest that religious attendance may be more cost-effective than statins. Religious attendance is not a mode of medical therapy, but these findings warrant more and better quality research designed to examine the associations between religion and health, and the potential relevance such associations might have for medical practice.


The text of the article does go into many reasons why doctors shouldn't try to prescribe attendance at religious services; if you're interested in the details, the full text of the article is at http://www.jabfm.org/cgi/content/full/19/2/103

Comments

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

It makes sense.. I know in our case, we tend to be very relaxed and open before/during/after our rituals--so hey--we should do rituals every week!!! :-D What do you say?

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

T's parents are both very active in their church - they're in the choir, they're in the vestry council, he's the church treasurer. They're both exercising regularly. And they're both on medication for high blood pressure, and he's on medication for high cholesterol. I do believe the bp and cholesterol are at least in good part hereditary. It's reassuring to think that their active spiritual life is probably making their situation easier than it would otherwise be. Without the social and spiritual connections they have with their congregation, perhaps they'd be ill instead of active people who need to take some medication.

[tracyandrook.livejournal.com]

I'd next like to see how longevity is affected with volunteerism versus religious service attendance. The hard part about that, is that people who volunteer most likely already strive to have good self-care habits. A hypothesis: The feel-good-about-yourself involvement with "something greater than yourself" lowers chronic stress. Or, we can isolate that characteristic of religious service attendance that does the job.

Nobody wants to talk about morbidity, do they?