Religious activity and depression among community-dwelling elderly persons with cancer: The moderating effect of race
Religious activity and depression among community-dwelling elderly persons with cancer: The moderating effect of race
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DOI：
10.1093/geronb/53b.4.s218
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发表时间：
1998-07-01
影响因子：
6.2
通讯作者：
Cohen, HJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Musick, MA;Koenig, HG;Cohen, HJ
目标.研究一直致力于阐明宗教与心理健康之间的联系。本文的目的是通过研究宗教活动对社区老年癌症患者抑郁症的影响来进一步了解这一领域。我们还测试了这些影响是否在黑人和白人之间存在差异。我们使用两波收集的数据，从社区居住的样本，老年人生活在北卡罗来纳州。抑郁情绪学使用CES-D 20量表中的四个分量表进行测量：躯体迟缓活动、抑郁情绪、积极情绪和人际关系。宗教活动的措施包括服务出席率，宗教奉献，观看或收听宗教节目。研究结果表明，在患有癌症的黑人中，宗教活动与较低水平的抑郁症有关;对于患有其他疾病或没有疾病的受访者，没有发现这种关系。此外，宗教活动的影响在黑人中比白人更强。这些分析支持了宗教活动是老年癌症患者抑郁症的一个强有力的预测因素的假设。然而，这一发现并不像我们预期的那样强烈。
Objectives. Research has been oriented toward elucidating the links between religion and mental health. The pur pose of this article is to further our knowledge in this area by examining the effect of religious activity on depressive symptomatology among community-dwelling elderly persons with cancer. We also test whether these effects differ between Blacks and Whites.Methods. We use two waves of data collected from a community-dwelling sample of elderly persons living in North Carolina. Depressive symptomatology is measured using four subscales from the CES-D 20 scale: somatic-retarded activity, depressed affect, positive affect, and interpersonal relations. Measures of religious activity include service attendance, religious devotion, and watching or listening to religious programs.Results. The findings indicate that among Blacks with cancer, religious activity is related to lower levels of depressive symptomatology; no such relationship is found for respondents with other illnesses or no illness. Further, the effects of religious activity are stronger among Blacks than Whites.Discussion. The analyses lend support to the hypothesis that religious activity is a strong predictor of depression in elderly adults with cancer. This finding, however, is not as strong as we had anticipated.