Religious Activities and Attitudes of Older Adults in a Geriatric Assessment Clinic

Abstract

Few studies have examined the prevalence, salience, and impact of religious beliefs, activities, and commitment among medical patients in later life. Surveys of the U.S. population aged 65 years and over reveal a high frequency of such beliefs and activities, which are reported to play a significant role in their lives. In this study, the religious beliefs, activities, and motivations of 106 consecutive patients (mean age 74.4 years) attending a geriatric outpatient clinic were examined. A high prevalence of orthodox Christian beliefs, religious community activity, private devotional activity, and intrinsic religious orientation was found. Levels of religious activity and intrinsic orientation were lower among patients with cancer, chronic anxiety, depressive symptoms, and those who smoked cigarettes or consumed moderate to large amounts of alcohol. Intrinsic religiosity was lower among men with hypertension. Patients with mild to moderate dementia tended to have higher levels of intrinsic religious orientation. The results of this study suggest that religion is a powerful cultural force in the lives of older medical patients and is integrally related to both mental and physical health.

Religion and depression: a review of the literature

“…Typi cal l y, such measures have been si ngl e-i tem i ndi cators, [24][25][26]53,58,63,67,71 al though some researchers have empl oyed mul ti -i tem measures w hose rel i abi li ty can be esti mated. 17,54,55,57,61,64 By far, most studi es suggest that pri vate rel i gi ous acti vi ty mai ntai ns a tenuous rel ati onshi p w i th depressi on. M ost studi es fi nd both the zero-order and mul ti vari ate associ ati ons to be smal l , regardl ess of w hether pri vate rel i gi ous acti vi ty i s measured w i th si ngl e-i tem or mul ti -i tem measures.…”

“…50 Despi te the psychometri c l i mi tati ons i nherent i n such measures of rel i gi ous i nvol vement, most studi es that have assessed the rel ati onshi p betw een organi zati onal rel i gi ous i nvol vement and depressi on have found a smal l negati ve associ ati on. Of 29 studi es that exami ned the cross-secti onal associ ati on of a measure of organi zati onal rel i gi ous i nvol vement (usual l y si ngl e-i tem measures assessi ng frequency of church attendance), 24 of them 14,17,21,[23][24][25]30,32,37,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65] find people involved in a religious organization to have l ow er l evel s of depressi ve symptoms. They al so are l ess l i kel y to be di agnosed w i th depressi ve di sorders or score i n the cl i ni cal range on di chotomi zed measures of depressi on.…”

Religion as a cross-cultural determinant of depression in elderly Europeans: results from the EURODEP collaboration

“…Studies from Northern America (Koenig et al 1988 ;Idler & Kasl, 1992 ;Batson et al 1993 ;Levin, 1994), as well as from Europe , have suggested that religious involvement generally helps to protect against depression. Although these results seem to be unanimous, there are large differences between the two continents with respect to the religious tradition.…”

Self–transcendence as a measure of spirituality in a sample of older Australian twins

“…7 Lack of agreement between studies has been attributed to the inadequacy of instruments used to measure religious attitudes and behavior, 5 and the situation is complicated by concerns regarding causation. 4,8 In particular, church attendance has been criticised as a measure of religiosity, with the observation that as people age and become restricted by financial considerations and physical disabilities, their ability to participate in organised religious activity decreases. 9 Ainlay and Smith 10 identified three separate aspects of religious participation (public participation, attitude toward participation, and private participation) with these dimensions becoming more distinct with advancing age, whilst Koenig et al 11 found various aspects of physical and mental health were associated with different forms of religious activity among older persons.…”