ArticleAmerican journal of epidemiology2012
Religious service attendance and major depression: a case of reverse causality?
Article in American journal of epidemiology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed.
- Is religiousness really helpful to reduce depressive symptoms at old age? A longitudinal study.PloS one · 2019Trial
- Hope and Healing: Exploring the Effect of Physical Illness on Religiosity in a Longitudinal Sample of Americans.Journal of religion and health · 2025Article
- The relationship between depressive symptoms and coping style on asthma outcomes in older adults.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- Linking Multi-Dimensional Religiosity in Childhood and Later Adulthood: Implications for Later Life Health.Research on aging · 2025Article
- Article
- Prospective relationships between patterns of religious belief/non-belief and mental health in adults: A UK cohort study.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2024Article
- Factors influencing type 2 diabetes self-management practices in rural Bangladesh: a qualitative investigation.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Religious service attendance and mortality: A population-based prospective cohort study in southern Sweden.SSM - population health · 2023Article
- Positive Effects of Religion and Social Ties on the Health of Former NFL Athletes.Journal of religion and health · 2023Article
- Potential influences of religiosity and religious coping strategies on people with diabetes.World journal of clinical cases · 2022Review
- A scoping review of spirituality and religiosity in people who have had a kidney transplant.Nursing open · 2022Article
- Is Religiousness Associated with Better Lifestyle and Health Among Danes? Findings from SHARE.Journal of religion and health · 2022Article
- Religiosity, Psychological Distress, and Well-Being: Evaluating Familial Confounding With Multicohort Sibling Data.American journal of epidemiology · 2022Article
- Invited Commentary: Religious Service Attendance and Implications for Clinical Care, Community Participation, and Public Health.American journal of epidemiology · 2022Article
- Identifying pathways to religious service attendance among older adults: A lagged exposure-wide analysis.PloS one · 2022Article
- Religious-service attendance and subsequent health and well-being throughout adulthood: evidence from three prospective cohorts.International journal of epidemiology · 2021Article
- Uncovering Profiles of Economic, Social, and Cultural Capital to Explore Depression Across Racial Groups.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2019Article
- Multidimensional understanding of religiosity/spirituality: relationship to major depression and familial risk.Psychological medicine · 2019Article
- Religious Attendance and Biological Risk: A National Longitudinal Study of Older Adults.Journal of religion and health · 2019Article
- Associations of Religious Upbringing With Subsequent Health and Well-Being From Adolescence to Young Adulthood: An Outcome-Wide Analysis.American journal of epidemiology · 2018Article
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Abstract
Although previous studies have found a protective association between attendance at religious services and depression, the extent to which this association is driven by depressed persons' dropping out of religious activities is not clear. The authors examined whether early onset of a major depressive episode (MDE) predicted a subsequent decrease in religious service attendance. Data came from 3 follow-up studies of the National Collaborative Perinatal Project birth cohort (mean age = 37 years at last follow-up; n = 2,097; 1959-2001). The generalized estimating equations method was used to calculate the impact of an early MDE diagnosis (before age 18 years) on the likelihood of change in level of religious service attendance from childhood to adulthood. Twenty-seven percent of study participants met the criteria for lifetime MDE (n = 567), of whom 31% had their first onset prior to age 18 years. Women with early MDE onset were 1.42 times more likely (95% confidence interval: 1.19, 1.70) than women with adult-onset MDE or no lifetime MDE to stop attending religious services by the time of the first adult follow-up wave. No significant associations were observed among men. These findings suggest that women are more likely to stop attending religious services after onset of depression. Selection out of religious activities could be a significant contributor to previously observed inverse correlations between religious service attendance and psychopathology during adulthood.
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