PROCESSES LINKING RELIGIOUS ATTENDANCE AND TELOMERE LENGTH

摘要

Although numerous studies show that religious involvement is associated with favorable health outcomes, it is unclear whether this general pattern extends to cellular aging. The mechanisms linking religious involvement and indicators of cellular aging are also undefined. We employ data from the 2008 Health and Retirement Study, a national probability sample of Americans aged 50 and older, to test whether leukocyte telomere length varies according to level of religious attendance. We also test several potential mechanisms linking religious attendance with telomere length, including stressful life events, depression, and smoking. Although we find that religious attendance is not directly associated with telomere length, our mediation analyses revealed significant indirect effects through depression and smoking, but not stressful life events. Religious attendance may indirectly promote telomere length by reducing the risk of depression and smoking, but there is no evidence to support stressful life events as a mechanism of religious attendance.