Past Research
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I
Iammarino, N.K. (1975). Relationship between death anxiety and demographic variables. Psychological Reports, 37, 262. (C/S survey of 249 ninth grade students in 9 different high schools in Northwestern Ohio; mean on Templer's Death Anxiety Scale was 7.00 for 58 Catholics, 6.75 for 8 Jews, 6.14 for 83 Protestants, and 6.34 for 75 other, and 7.13 for 24 nones (p=ns)) (weak study)
Ide, B.A., Sanli, T. (1992). Health beliefs and behaviors of Saudi women. Women and Health, 19, 97-113. (CS conv 50 Saudi Arabian women at health clinics (82% age 40, 80% without any high schhol, 80% married); God indicated as specific cause of six different infectious and organic diseases in 20-30% of cases; in Islam, God is believed to be the ultimate or primary causes for all illnesses (Sebai, 1981)) (R-4)
Idler, E.L. (1987). Religious involvement and the health of the elderly: some hypotheses and an initial test. Social Forces, 66, 226-238. (C/S survey of probability sample (using the stratified cluster method) of 2,811 community-dwelling elderly residents of New Haven, CT (1,139 men and 1,617 women) (Yale EPESE); public religiousness measured by two items (attendance (6 levels) and number of other congregation members known (4 levels)) and private religiousness measured by two items (self-rated religiousness (4 levels) and religion as source of strength and comfort (3 levels)); functional disability measured by a 5-level score based on sum of ADL's; chronic conditions measured by sum of self-reported conditions; depression measured by CES-D score; control variables included demographics, health practices, physical activity index, social activity (social contacts, intimacy and marital status), two-item optimism scale and 3-item fatalism scale; multi-variate analysis examining functional disability as the primary outcome revealed that among men public religiousness was significantly related to disability (-.075, p<.05), after covariates including chronic conditions were controlled; while private religiousness was unrelated to functional disability, among men at any given level of chronic illness, those who received a great deal of comfort from religion reported less disability than men who did not receive such comfort (thus, religiousness affected perception of disability level); among women, public religiousness was inversely related to disability (-.16, p<.001, after controlling for covariates including chronic conditions), but private religiousness was unrelated to disability (no interactions with chronic illness, though); multi-variate analyses examining depression as the primary outcome revealed that among men, public religiousness was unrelated to depression after chronic conditions and disability (along with optimism and fatalism) were controlled; however, the relationship between functional disability and depression weakened at greater degrees of perceived religiousness (private religiousness), suggesting that personal religiousness was particularly effective in shielding those from depression who had severe functional disability; among women, public religiousness was inversely related to depression (-.08, p<.01, even after controlling for all covariates, including optimism and fatalism); private religiousness, however, was not related to depression after those covariates controlled (and no interactions with disability)
Idler, E.L., & Kasl, S. (1991). Health perceptions and survival: Do global evaluations of health status really predict mortality? Journal of Gerontology, 46, S55-S63. (4-year prospective cohort study of 2,812 older adults (a stratified cluster sample) in the Yale EPESE, examining predictors of mortality, especially self-rated health; same measures of public and private religiousness used as in Idler 1987 study; among men, public and private religious involvement were unrelated to the risk of mortality (weighted logistic regression coefficient=.011 and -.013, both p=ns); among women, public religiousness had a weak negative effect on the risk of mortality (-.062, p=ns) and private religiousness had no effect (.030, p=ns))
Idler, E.L., & Kasl, S.V. (1992). Religion, disability, depression, and the timing of death. American Journal of Sociology, 97, 1052-1079. (8-year prospective cohort study of a stratified probability sample of 2,812 persons aged 65 or over, followed from 1982 to 1989 (Yale EPESE); public religiosity: religious affiliation, church attendance, number of congregation known; private religiosity: self-perceived religiosity, and perceived strength and comfort from religion; dates of death compared with three major Jewish holidays (Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, and Passover) and two Christian holidays (Christmas and Easter); public religiosity in 1982 inversely predicted disability in 1985 (p<.005), after 1982 disability and other predictors were controlled for; this was due primarily to an improvement in functional ability (p=.001) rather than a prevention of decline (p=ns); 1982 public and private religiosity had no overall predictive effect on 1985 depression, except among 603 men who had become disabled between 1982-1985, in whom private religiosity in 1982 had an inverse relationship with CES-D depression in 1985 (beta=-.50, p=.03); concluded that "religious involvement provides some protection against depression for the elderly, especially the vulnerable group of elderly men with deteriorating functional status" (p 1069); 1982 public and private religiousness had no overall effect on mortality (1982-1989), when physical health and age were controlled for, although more Christians died in month after their major holidays than the month before (p=.004), with no effect for Jews; more Jews, however, died in month after their major holidays than month before (p=.02 for males, and p=.02 for observant Jews), with no effect for males Christians or observant Christians) (elders may actually postpone the timing of their death until the conclusion of major religious holidays) (major study)
Idler, E.L. (1995). Religion, health, and nonphysical senses of self. Social Forces, 74, 683-704. (C/S survey of 200 randomly selected patients of an urban rehabilitation clinic who completed two instruments from the NHANES-I (a physician's examination of the client's musculoskeletal system and the patient's own self-report of pain in those same joints); 176 of the 200 subjects who scored one or more standard deviations away from the mean of the joint pain variable were asked to participate in a psychosocial interview; 146 consented and were interviewed; included in psychosocial interview were information about social networks and support, depression, neuroticism, optimism, body consciousness, and a set of 15 items measuring the nonphysical sense of self; religious variables were religious affiliation, activities, beliefs, and self-rated religiousness; results indicated that the more disabled a person was, the more likely they were to report seeking help from religion (beta=.50, p<.05, after controlling for self-rated religiousness, race, education ,and activity level); examining nonphysical sense of self as dependent variable, found that this was predicted by self-rated religiousness (.23, p<.05), self-rated health, and education; concludes that self-ratings of health represent broad conceptions of self in which physical health and abilities may be de-emphasized and nonphysical characteristics, including religious or spiritual self-identities, may be relied on)
Idler, E.L., & Kasl, S.V. (1997). Religion among disabled and nondisabled elderly persons: Cross-sectional patterns in health practices, social activities, and well-being. Journal of Gerontology, 52B, s294-s305. (C/S of a probability sample (using the stratified cluster method) of 2,812 community-dwelling elderly residents of New Haven, CT (Yale EPESE) (58% women, 21% nonwhite, 37% married, average 9 years education, ave age 74.5 in 1982, 53% Catholic, 28% Protestant, 14% Jewish, 4% none; religious attendance measured by 6 levels and self-rated religiousness by 4 levels; functional disability measured by 15 items with a score range from 0 to 150; health practices physical activity index (gardening, exercise, sports, walking each scored as never, sometimes or always), BMI, smoking status, and alcohol use index (number of drinks x number of drinking occasions/week); regression analyses reveal that religious attendance positively related to physical activity (.097, p<.001), to alcohol use (-1.27, p<.001), and to never smoked (.198, p<.001); subjective religiousness related to BMI (.181, p<.01) and never smoked (.115, p<.05); subjective religiosity significantly related to number of Rx meds (.041, p<.001); attendance and subjective religiosity related in significant and opposite directions to level of physical disability (-.019, p<.001, for attendance, and .004, p<.05 for subjective); religious attendance significantly related to leisure activities (.249, p<.001), number of close friends (.356, p<.001), number of friend contacts (.409, p<.01), number of kin contacts (.245, p<.05), and celebration of holidays (.037, p<.01); subjective religiousness related to number of close kin (.22, p<.05) and number of kin contacts (.494, p<.01), but not other social support variables (after controlling for attendance); attendance inversely related to CESD score (.486, p<.01), in particular lack of positive affect (-.116, p<.05), somatic (-.165, p<.001), and interpersonal (-.024, p<.05), but was unrelated to optimism (.062, p=ns); subjective religiousness unrelated to total CESD or subscales or optimism, once attendance controlled); just religious attendance is related to better health behaviors, better social support, and less depression)
Idler, E.L., & Kasl, S.V. (1997). Religion among disabled and nondisabled elderly persons, II: Attendance at religious services as a predictor of the course of disability. Journal of Gerontology, 52B, s306-s316. (12-year prospective cohort study of 2,812 older adults in New Haven, CT (Yale EPESE); SUDAAN used to adjust for complex, stratified, and clustered nature of the study design; bivariate analyses reveal that 1982 attendance is inversely related with disability throughout the follow-up period, but the strength of the association slowly declines from 1982 disability (-.26, p<.05) to 1994 disability (-.13, p<.05); 40% attended weekly services in 1982 and 38% attended weekly services in 1994; the decline in physical functioning was steeper than the decline in attendance, suggesting that disability may diminish as a barrier to attendance; multivariate analyses show that 1982 attendance predicts less disability in 1983 (-.93, p<.05), 1984 (-.92, p<.05), 1985 (-1.16, p<.001), 1986 (-.91, p<.05), 1987 (-1.58, p<.01, 1988 (-1.53, p<.01), and 1994 (-1.21, p=ns); models controlled for 20 covariates); 1982 functional disability is unrelated to church attendance in any of the six follow-up assessments (although disability did have a strong short-term effect on attendance, but it was gone by three years); for subjective religiousness, 1982 disability had small but significant effects on higher levels of religious feeling in 1988 and 1994; also found evidence that the effects of attendance on subsequent disability was greater for those with some existing disability, although effects were present for all disability levels; these authors argue that religious involvement precedes changes in health and functioning and this is compatible with a causal interpretation of the role of religious involvement) (excellent study)
Idler, E.L., Ellison, C.G., George, L.K., Krause, N., Levin, J.S., Ory, M., Pargament, K.I., Powell, L.H., Williams, D.R., Underwood-Gordon, L. (1998). Brief measure of religiousness and spirituality: Conceptual Development. Psychosomatic Medicine, in submission (38-item instrument that focuses largely on religious activities, although does expand questions to include spiritual issues; covers domains of affiliation, history, organizational, private practices, support, coping, beliefs and values, commitment, forgiveness, spiritual experience, overall self-ranking)
Iga, M. (1981). Suicide of Japanese youth. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 11(1), 17-30. (suicide rate among Japanese youth is the highest of any country in the world; this is in part due "examination hell" and to the basic view of life and death in Japan: Absolute phenomenalism (form of Shintoism): there is little separation between this and the after world; beauty is in things that are ephemeral (suicide is logical way to embody beauty); highest virtue is to become selfless for a group cause (combination of fatalism and altruism). (Review)
Infante JR, Peran F, Martinez M, Roldan A, Poyatos R, Ruiz C, Samaniego F, Garrido F. (1998). ACTH and beta-endorhin in Trascendental Meditation (TM). Physiology and Behavior, 64(3), 311-315. (Abstract) We have evaluated the effect of TM on the hypothalamo-hypophyseal-adrenal axis diurnal rhythms through the determination of hormone levels. Blood samples were taken at 0900 hours and 2000 hours. These samples were taken from 18 healthy volunteers who regularly practice TM and from nine healthy non-meditators. Cortisol, beta-endorphin, and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) were measured at both hours. TM practitioners showed no diurnal rhythm for ACTH and for beta-endorphin (ACTH, pg/mL, mean +/- SE; 13.8 +/-1.2 - 12.1 +/-1.5/beta-endorphin, pg/mL; 14.4+/-1.5 - 17.2+/-1.9, at 0900 hours and 2000 hours respectively), in contrast to control subjects, who showed normal diurnal rhythm for these hormones and for cortisol (ACTH, pg/mL; 19.4+/-1.9 - 11.9+/-2.2/beta-endorphin, pg/mL; 25.4+/-1.7 - 17.7+/-1.1/Cortisol, ng/mL; 201.4+/-13.2 - 71.3+/-6.5, at 0900-2000 hours respectively, p<0.01 in the three cases). Practitioners of TM with similar anxiety levels to those of the control group showed a different pattern in the daytime secretion of pituitary hormones. TM thus appears to have a significant effect on the neuroendocrine axis. Because cortisol levels had a normal pattern in the TM group, these results may be due to a change in the feedback sensitivity caused by this mental technique.
Inglehart, R. (1990). Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (14 nations, ORA & SR, greater happiness)
*[Isberner & Wright (1990).......] (prevention programs in churches to prevent premarital sex and unplanned pregnancies; known as OCTOPUS (Open Communication regarding Teens Or Parents Understanding Sexuality); high success rate in lowering the incidence of premarital sexual intercourse among members of the group and minimizing teenage pregnancies)
Israel, B.A. (1985). Social networks and social support: Implications for natural helper and community level interventions. Health Education Quarterly, 12, 65-80. (discussion) (focuses on linkage between social support and social networks and health education programs at community level, emphasizing two stragegies: programs that enhance entire networks through natural helpers, and programs that stregthen overlapping networks/communities through key opinionr and informal leaders engaged in community-wide problem solving)
Isralowitz, R.E., & Ong, T.H. (1990). Religious values and beliefs and place of residence as predictors of alcohol use among Chinese college students in Singapore. International Journal of Addictions, 25, 515-529. (C/S survey of stratified random sample of 767 college students at National University of Singapore; weak measure of religiousness: dichotomous measure of whether subject had (82%) or did not have (18%) religious values and beliefs; no association with alcohol use (bivariate association))
Ita, DJ (1996). Testing of a causal model: acceptance of death in hospice patients. Omega, 32, 81-92.
