A national study to be published next month in “Demography” magazine says those who worship regularly at a church or synagogue live 10 percent longer than those who don’t attend services.
The report, called “Religious Involvement and U.S. Adult Mortality,” says life expectancy for weekly churchgoers is 82, and 83 for those who attend more than once a week. Nonchurchgoers, the study said, live an average of 75 years. Sociologist Robert Hummer of the University of Texas told “USA Today” that he thinks the study shows “that behavior is influenced by church or religious involvement, [and] that affects life expectancy.”
Researchers at the University of Texas, the University of Colorado and Florida State University tracked 22,000 regular churchgoers as well as occasional worshipers and nonworshipers over a nine-year period. They found that nonworshipers have the highest risk of early death and that the risk decreases as church attendance increases.