Religion and Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Among Postmenopausal Women: the Women's Health Initiative
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Authors
Salmoirago Blotcher, ElenaFitchett, George
Ockene, Judith K.
Schnall, Eliezer
Crawford, Sybil L.
Granek, Iris
Manson, JoAnne
Ockene, Ira S.
O'Sullivan, Mary Jo
Powell, Linda
Rapp, Stephen
Student Authors
Elena Salmoirago BlotcherUMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive and Behavioral MedicineDepartment of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
Document Type
Accepted ManuscriptPublication Date
2011-02-08Keywords
Health Behavior; Life Style; Religion; Religion and Medicine; Postmenopause; Middle Aged; Female; Women's HealthMiddle-aged women
Religion
Lifestyles
Health
Health behaviors
Community Health and Preventive Medicine
Health Psychology
Preventive Medicine
Psychiatry and Psychology
Religion
Women's Health
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Show full item recordAbstract
Worship attendance has been associated with longer survival in prospective cohort studies. A possible explanation is that religious involvement may promote healthier lifestyle choices. Therefore, we examined whether attendance is associated with healthy behaviors, i.e. use of preventive medicine services, non-smoking, moderate drinking, exercising regularly, and with healthy dietary habits. The population included 71,689 post-menopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative observational study free of chronic diseases at baseline. Attendance and lifestyle behaviors information was collected at baseline using self-administered questionnaires. Healthy behaviors were modeled as a function of attendance using logistic regression. After adjustment for confounders, worship attendance (less than weekly, weekly, and more than weekly vs. never) was positively associated with use of preventive services [OR for mammograms: 1.34 (1.19, 1.51), 1.41 (1.26, 1.57), 1.33 (1.17, 1.52); breast self exams: 1.14 (1.02, 1.27), 1.33 (1.21, 1.48), 1.25 (1.1, 1.43); PAP smears: 1.22 (1.01, 1.47-weekly vs. none)]; non-smoking: [1.41 (1.35, 1.48), 1.76 (1.69, 1.84), 2.27 (2.15, 2.39)]; moderate drinking [1.35 (1.27, 1.45), 1.60 (1.52, 1.7), 2.19 (2.0, 2.4)]; and fiber intake [1.08 (1.03, 1.14), 1.16 (1.11, 1.22), 1.31 (1.23, 1.39), respectively], but not with regular exercise or with lower saturated fat and caloric intake. These findings suggest that worship attendance is associated with certain, but not all, healthy behaviors. Further research is needed to get a deeper understanding of the relationship between religious involvement and healthy lifestyle behaviors and of the inconsistent patterns in this association.Source
J Behav Med. 2011 Oct;34(5):360-71. doi: 10.1007/s10865-011-9322-z. Epub 2011 Feb 8. The final publication is available at www.springerlink.com. Link to article on publisher's websiteDOI
10.1007/s10865-011-9322-zPermanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/33126PubMed ID
21301947Related Resources
Link to article in PubMedRights
This is the authors' peer-reviewed accepted manuscript.ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1007/s10865-011-9322-z
Scopus Count
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