Religious involvement and mortality risk among African American adults

This article examines the effects of religious involvement on mortality ris k among African Americans. The authors use a relatively new and innovative nationally representative data set-the National Health Interview Survey mat ched to the National Center for Health Statistics' multiple cause of death file-to model this relationship. The results show that, compared with Afric an Americans who attend religious services more than once a week, those who never attend are more than twice as likely to die during the nine-year fol low-up period, even net of a large number of confounding and mediating fact ors. The strong effect of nonattendance on mortality risk is robust, pervas ive, and remarkably strong across all subgroups of the population, whereas a moderate level of attendance is associated with higher mortality risk amo ng young adults, men, and Southerners, but not among older adults, women, a nd non-Southerners. Among African Americans, lack of religious involvement appears to be associated with risk of premature death, whereas frequent rel igious involvement stands out as a critical, protective factor that contrib utes to lower mortality and longer life.