RELIGION, AGING, AND HEALTH

说明(由申请人提供)：这项竞争性延续申请的目的是寻求额外资金，以继续开展由国家老龄研究所(NIA)支持的项目：“宗教、老龄化和健康”(RO 1 AG14749)。这项研究的前四年花了一套全面的调查项目来衡量晚年的宗教信仰。这项研究在2001年完成的全国范围内对老年白人和老年非裔美国人的调查(第一波)中达到了顶峰。在这项全国性调查中，共有1500名老年人成功接受了采访。对全国数据的分析表明，新设计的宗教项目具有良好的心理测量学特性，这些措施在理论上有意义地与健康和心理健康有关。需要资金再对所有参与基线调查(第一波)的受试者进行三次面谈(第二波至第四波)。这些额外的数据将用于实现以下具体目标：1.)探讨性别、宗教与健康之间的关系；研究应激性生活事件、宗教和健康之间的关系；继续研究老年白人和老年黑人在宗教和健康方面的种族差异。将使用各种最先进的数据分析程序对这些问题进行经验性评估。其中包括个体生长曲线模型和潜变量结构方程模型。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this competing continuation application is to seek additional funds to continue work on the National Institute on Aging (NIA)-supported project: "Religion, Aging, and Health" (RO 1 AG14749). The first four years of this study were spent developing a comprehensive set of survey items to measure religion in late life. This research culminated in a nationwide survey of older whites and older African Americans (Wave 1) that was completed in 2001. A total of 1,500 older adults were interviewed successfully for the nationwide survey. Analysis of the nationwide data suggests that the newly devised religion items have sound psychometric properties, and that these measures are related to health and psychological well being in theoretically meaningful ways. Funds are requested to conduct three more waves of interviews (Waves 2 - 4) with all subjects who participated in the baseline survey (Wave 1). These additional waves of data will be used to address the following specific aims: 1.) To explore the relationships among gender, religion, and health; 2.) To examine the interface between stressful life events, religion, and health; and 3.) To continue research on race differences in religion and health among older whites and older blacks. A wide range of state-of-the-art data analytic procedures will be used to empirically evaluate these issues. Included among these procedures are individual growth curve models and latent variable structural equation models.