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Church attendance can do a lot of good for a lot of people, if they allow it to change their lives. But, this is the first time I have seen a study that suggests attending church could save lives.
The journal JAMA Psychiatry recently published an article titled “Religious Service Attendance and Deaths Related to Drugs, Alcohol, and Suicide Among US Health Care Professionals.” The research was conducted by the T. H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University
According to the researchers, women who attended religious services at least once per week had a 68% lower hazard of death from despair compared to peers who did not, while men who attended worship at least once a week had a 33% lower hazard compared to men who never attended.
“Findings of this study were congruent with previous evidence suggesting that religious service attendance was inversely associated with all-cause mortality and various factors associated with despair … positively associated with psychosocial well-being outcomes, such as greater purpose in life … and often more strongly associated with subsequent health compared with other aspects of social integration,” the Christian Post reported.
One of the lead researchers said the study’s results were particularly striking in light of all that is going on with the COVID-19 panic.
The full story can be found at the Christian Post.
