Religion, Disability, Depression, and the Timing of Death

Aim: To investigate the prospective relationship between religious involvement and health status (disability, depression, and mortality) among the elderly.

Descriptive Procedure: A stratified probability sample of $N = 2,812$ residents aged $65$ and older in New Haven, Connecticut, was followed from $1982$ to $1989$.     - Measurements were taken using:
        - Public Religiousness: an index of service attendance and congregation members known personally.
        - Private Religiousness: an index of self-reported depth of religiousness and strength/comfort derived from religion.

Findings:
    - Public religious involvement significantly protects against functional disability over a three-year period, promoting rehabilitation and preventing decline.     - Private religiousness serves as a buffer against depression for recently disabled men, with Jewish respondents less likely to become depressed than Catholics.     - There was a notable reduction in mortality during religious holidays, suggesting a "death-dip" effect linked to religious observances, particularly among Christians and observant Jewish males.     - The protective effects of religious involvement persisted even after controlling for sociodemographics and baseline health status.