Biological and Psychosocial Manifestations of Religion

描述（由申请人提供）：虽然现代社会学对宗教的研究已经有近百年的历史，但直到最近，行为科学家才开始探索宗教/精神生活可能带来的健康后果。结果表明，宗教参与与健康和死亡率之间通常呈正相关。迄今为止，这一新兴领域的许多研究都使用了广泛的衡量标准（如宗教出席率），调查了小规模的区域人口，并利用了少数民族。 在这项纵向研究中，我们计划：1。研究宗教体验的特定表现形式（例如祈祷的维度和上帝的对比概念），以及它们与生活质量的关联，并导致新教群体的特定死亡率，该群体通常具有良好的健康结果，并且越来越具有多样性; 2.调查这些宗教体验的相同表现形式是否与两个种族群体（非洲人和[欧洲-美国人]）的生活质量和死因特异性死亡率有不同的关联; 3.研究宗教体验的这些表现与压力、免疫系统功能和衰老的生化和生理指标之间的可能关系。 这项前瞻性研究计划作为LLU基督复临安息日会健康研究-2的补充，该研究目前由NCI资助，并招募了来自美国各地的125，000名参与者。虽然AHS-2侧重于饮食及其对癌症发病率的影响，但我们的研究涉及10，000名AHS-2参与者，将探讨宗教信仰和习俗如何不仅影响死亡率，还影响生活质量。此外，拟议研究的500名成员，年龄在50 - 95岁以上，将住在洛马琳达附近，并参加研究的临床分支，将确定宗教影响的可能生物和生理介质。这项研究应进一步了解宗教的各种表现形式如何积极和消极地影响身心健康。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although the modern sociological study of religion is almost a hundred years old, only recently have behavioral scientists probed religious/spiritual life for its possible health outcomes. The results demonstrate a usually positive correlation between religious involvement and health and mortality. To date, much of the research in this emerging field has used broad measures (e.g. religious attendance), surveyed small, regional populations, and utilized a paucity of minority peoples. In this longitudinal study we plan: 1. To examine particular manifestations of religious experience (e.g. dimensions of prayer and contrasting concepts of God), and their associations with quality of life and cause specific mortality in a Protestant group possessing generally good health outcomes, and increasingly characterized by diversity; 2. To investigate whether these same manifestations of religious experience have different associations with quality of life and cause-specific mortality in two ethnic groups (African- and [Euro- Americans); 3. To examine the possible relationships of these manifestations of religious experience to biochemical and physiological indicators of stress, immune system function, and aging. This prospective study is planned as a complement to LLU's Adventist Health Study-2, currently funded by NCI and enrolling 125,000 participants from across the United States. Whereas AHS-2 focuses on diet and its effect on cancer incidence, our research involving 10,000 of AHS-2 participants will explore how religious beliefs and practices may affect not only mortality but also quality of life. Further, 500 members of the proposed study, ages 50-95+, will live in the Loma Linda vicinity, and participate in the study's clinical arm that will ascertain possible biological and physiological mediators of religious effect. This study should further current understanding of how various manifestations of religion positively and negatively affect physical and mental health.