Religiosity and Mortality Risk in Later Life

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this research is to extend the Longitudinal Study of Generations and Mental Health (LSOG) by linking it to mortality data from the National Death Index (NDI). The addition of valid dates and underlying causes of death for decedents will provide the opportunity to examine how religiosity influences risk of mortality in later life, as well as open up possibilities for the general research community to investigate the influence of other psycho-social factors on mortality when these new data are archived. The Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG) is a study of 3,168 individuals representing 328 three-generation families that began in 1971 and has continued to 2006. The focus of the proposed project will be on 1,217 respondents in the two oldest generations who in 1971 averaged 67 and 43 years, respectively. Multidimensional measures of religiosity have been applied over the eight waves of measurement, including frequency of attendance at religious services, values concerning the role of religion in public life, beliefs in conservative religious ideology, identification as a religious person, salience of religion in one's life, and religious denomination. Survival analysis will be used to assess how time-varying religiosity variables influence the risk of mortality over 40 years and to examine the following mediators through which this relationship unfolds: social integration (structural, functional, and normative), health behaviors (tobacco and alcohol consumption) and psychological well-being (depression, self-esteem, and locus of control). The potential of hyper-religiosity to negatively influence survival will also be examined in non-linear models. The multi-actor/full family design of the study provides added value by allowing various within- family assessments of mortality risk that hold constant common but unobserved background characteristics. This investigation will provide knowledge about the mechanisms linking behavioral and subjective aspects of religiosity to health outcomes in two older cohorts.