Older Religious People Healthier than Peers Who Do Not Believe in God

Elderly people who are religious and attend the service on a regular basis are more likely to have a stronger health than their counterparts who are not religious and find no use in going to church, synagogue or mosque depending on the religion adopted. The study has been carried out by a team of researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and found that older individuals who reported having faith in God above were more physically active and less likely to smoke than elders who had no such religious belief.

The 4.6 year follow-up study run by Harvard researchers aimed at investigating lung function in both religious and irreligious individuals with ages ranging from 60 to 70. The research involved 1,174 healthy men and women, out of whom 65% of female subjects and 51% of male ones were religious. Overall results of the study showed that lung function declined considerably more slowly in religious older participants than in those who did not visit the church, synagogue or mosque on a regular basis.

Leader of the research Dr. Joanna Maselko highlighted the fact that attending the religious service regularly does not only mean that people enter the saint place to prey, but they are also part of a community they can share thoughts, feelings, nuisance and happy events with. On the other hand, irreligious elderly people have increased chances of being and feeling alone and isolated from the society.

Dr. Joanna Maselko stated: "In the US, social isolation among the elderly is a huge problem. That's associated with all sorts of health problems, mental and physical." However, this does not mean that people should start visiting the church on a regular basis if they hadn't feel the urge to do this until now. I don't think the take-home message is if you don't go to church you should start. It's too early to really say this us what you should do, this is what you shouldn't do." Instead, lonely older people should consider giving up smoking, staying active and searching for companions to chat and share opinions with.