Type of Submission

Podium Presentation

Keywords

Religion, religiosity, religious involvement, longevity, mortality

Abstract

In this review we address the conflicts of previous research on associations between religious involvement and longevity. We will also discuss causes of conclusional variance within these studies. Our study of inconclusive research will equip individuals with insight about sources of disagreement and origins of variance within empirical studies on religiosity and longevity. A wide variety of sources were selected to represent the diversity of findings. Most selected studies identified psychosocial elements of religiosity and proposed a positive, negative, or no correlation with longevity. We reviewed the validity of each study and analyzed the proposed association with longevity. Numerous methodologically sound studies reported that religious faith decreases the risk of morbidity, while other studies proposed that religious faith increases the risk of morbidity. Causes of substantial disagreement among well conducted studies include challenges in developing reliable and valid measures of religiousness, confounding variables not well identified and controlled, sampling bias in study groups, and overstatement of conclusions without nuance. Consistent, unconfounded evidence is needed before a definite conclusion can be reached.

Campus Venue

Stevens Student Center, Room 241

Location

Cedarville, OH

Start Date

4-20-2016 1:40 PM

End Date

4-20-2016 2:00 PM

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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Apr 20th, 1:40 PM Apr 20th, 2:00 PM

Associations of Religious Involvement and Mortality: A Critical Review

Cedarville, OH

In this review we address the conflicts of previous research on associations between religious involvement and longevity. We will also discuss causes of conclusional variance within these studies. Our study of inconclusive research will equip individuals with insight about sources of disagreement and origins of variance within empirical studies on religiosity and longevity. A wide variety of sources were selected to represent the diversity of findings. Most selected studies identified psychosocial elements of religiosity and proposed a positive, negative, or no correlation with longevity. We reviewed the validity of each study and analyzed the proposed association with longevity. Numerous methodologically sound studies reported that religious faith decreases the risk of morbidity, while other studies proposed that religious faith increases the risk of morbidity. Causes of substantial disagreement among well conducted studies include challenges in developing reliable and valid measures of religiousness, confounding variables not well identified and controlled, sampling bias in study groups, and overstatement of conclusions without nuance. Consistent, unconfounded evidence is needed before a definite conclusion can be reached.

 

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