\u201cReligious Service Attendance and Deaths Related to Drugs, Alcohol, and Suicide Among US Health Care Professionals\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Four of the the article\u2019s five authors \u2014\u00a0Ying\u00a0Chen,\u00a0ScD<\/span>; <\/span>Howard K.\u00a0Koh,\u00a0MD, MPH<\/span>; <\/span>Ichiro\u00a0Kawachi,\u00a0MD, PhD<\/span>;\u00a0<\/span>Michael\u00a0Botticelli,\u00a0MEd<\/span>; and\u00a0<\/span>Tyler J.\u00a0VanderWeele,\u00a0PhD \u2014 are associated with Harvard University. \u00a0The fifth is affiliated with the\u00a0Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hope that the authors and JAMA Psychiatry<\/em> won\u2019t mind my reproducing some of the first paragraphs of the article. \u00a0I do so in order to pique interest in it, in the hope that some in my audience will read it:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Key Points<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nQuestion<\/strong>\u00a0 Is frequent religious service attendance associated with a lower risk of deaths related to drugs, alcohol, and suicide (referred to as deaths from despair<\/i>) among US health care professionals?<\/span><\/p>\nFindings<\/strong>\u00a0 In this cohort study of 66\u202f492 female registered nurses and 43\u202f141 male health care professionals in the US, attendance at religious services at least once per week was associated with a 68% lower hazard of death from despair among women and a 33% lower hazard among men compared with never attendance.<\/span><\/p>\nMeaning<\/strong>\u00a0 The findings suggest that frequent attendance at religious services is associated with lower subsequent risk of deaths from despair.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
Abstract<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\nImportance<\/strong>\u00a0 The increase in deaths related to drugs, alcohol, and suicide (referred to as deaths from despair<\/i>) has been identified as a public health crisis. The antecedents associated with these deaths have, however, seldom been investigated empirically.<\/span><\/p>\nObjective<\/strong>\u00a0 To prospectively examine the association between religious service attendance and deaths from despair. . . .<\/span><\/p>\nMain Outcomes and Measures<\/strong>\u00a0 Deaths from despair, defined specifically as deaths from suicide, unintentional poisoning by alcohol or drug overdose, and chronic liver diseases and cirrhosis. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) of deaths from despair by religious service attendance at study baseline, with adjustment for baseline sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, psychological distress, medical history, and other aspects of social integration. . . .<\/span><\/p>\nConclusions and Relevance<\/strong>\u00a0 The findings suggest that religious service attendance is associated with a lower risk of death from despair among health care professionals. These results may be important in understanding trends in deaths from despair in the general population.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
Introduction<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nLife expectancy in the US has decreased for 3 consecutive years since 2015.\u00a0In particular, the mortality rates among middle-aged non-Hispanic white men and women aged 25 to 64 years increased by 5.2% between 1999 and 2016, with the differences particularly pronounced among individuals without a college degree.\u00a0This increase in midlife mortality was largely associated with the increasing deaths from suicide, unintentional drug (eg, opioids) and alcohol poisoning, and alcohol-associated chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. These 3 causes of death have increased in parallel since 1999. Economists Case and Deaton introduced the term deaths of despair<\/i> because these deaths may share a context of hopelessness and indifference toward living.\u00a0As Deaton testified before the US Senate, suicide, drug misuse, and heavy drinking are all \u201cplausible outcomes of processes that have cumulatively undermined meaning of life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s interesting to contemplate a study such as this one in connection with the rise \u2014 much celebrated in some circles \u2014 of the rise of the religious \u201cnones.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In any event, those still actively working on their Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d Files<\/em> may want to consider adding this item to their collection. \u00a0Why? \u00a0\u201c\u2018If they would rather die,\u2019 said Scrooge, \u2018they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.'\u201d \u00a0But it appears that religious involvement, by decreasing the desire to die, could significantly interfere with the goal of surplus-population reduction.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Incidentally, I treated related matters \u2014 even citing\u00a0Tyler J.\u00a0VanderWeele,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0one of the authors of this latest study \u2014 in my remarks at the 2017 FairMormon conference:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Difference Does It Make?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 A reader of, and commenter on, this blog who goes by the moniker LB has kindly called this fascinating article \u2014 which appeared on 6 May 2020 in JAMA [Journal of the American Medical Association] Psychiatry\u00a0\u2014 to my attention: \u00a0 \u201cReligious Service Attendance and Deaths Related to Drugs, Alcohol, and Suicide Among US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9964,7347,11500,2412,11503,8750,11506,6147,3547,2836,9991,9988,6237,743,2749,401,9967,9949],"class_list":["post-85087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-addiction","tag-depression","tag-drug","tag-health","tag-life-expectancy","tag-meaning","tag-medical","tag-medicine","tag-mental-health","tag-nones","tag-psychiatric","tag-psychiatry","tag-purpose","tag-religion","tag-suicide","tag-theism","tag-well-being","tag-wellbeing"],"yoast_head":"\n
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