Religious Involvement and Healthy Cognitive Aging: Patterns, Explanations, and Future Directions

Abstract

DOES religious involvement favor healthy cognitive aging? Recent studies published in the Journals of Gerontology suggest that it does. In this guest editorial, I review this literature and outline promising avenues for future research. Van Ness and Kasl (1) were among the first to emphasize the association between religious involvement and cognitive functioning. They use data from the New Haven Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly survey to examine the effects of religious attendance and religious identity on cognitive functioning over 6 years. The study uses Pfeiffer's Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire to assess cognitive functioning and includes controls for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, income, marital status, other secular forms of social engagement, drinking and smoking, depression, chronic disease, physical activity, disability, and baseline cognitive functioning. Their results show that religious attendance, not religious identity, is associated with a reduction in the odds of cognitive dysfunction over time. Compared with those who attend religious services less than once per week, those who attend services once per week or more exhibit a 36% reduction in the odds of cognitive dysfunction over 3 years.

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