Religious Attendance and Mortality: Implications for the Black-White Mortality Crossover

Citation

Dupre, Matthew Egan; Franzese, Alexis T.; & Parrado, Emilio A. (2006). Religious Attendance and Mortality: Implications for the Black-White Mortality Crossover. Demography, 43(1), 141-164.

Abstract

This study investigates the relationships among religious attendance, mortality, and the blackwhite mortality crossover. We build on prior research by examining the link between attendance and mortality while testing whether religious involvement captures an important source of population
heterogeneity that contributes to a crossover. Using data from the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly, we fi nd a strong negative association between attendance and mortality. Our results also show evidence of a racial crossover in mortality rates for both men and women. When religious attendance is modeled in terms of differential frailty, clear gender differences emerge. For women, the effect of attendance is race- and age-dependent, modifying the age at crossover by 10 years. For men, however, the effect of attendance is not related to race and does not alter the crossover pattern. When other health risks are modeled in terms of differential frailty, we fi nd neither race nor age-related effects. Overall, the results highlight the importance of considering religious attendance when examining racial and gender differences in age-specifi c mortality rates.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/dem.2006.0004

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2006

Journal Title

Demography

Author(s)

Dupre, Matthew Egan
Franzese, Alexis T.
Parrado, Emilio A.