Aging, Religion, and Health

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Aging, Religion, and Health

• Presented by
• Michal Oleksowicz and Emiko Nishii
• Development Workshop
• 20.01.2011

2
Outline

• Overview (Aging, Religion, Health theories)
• Data (Gallup World Poll)
• Results
• Drawbacks
• Extension (determinants of health of the children)

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Background /Religion, Age, Gender, Health/

• Secularization hypothesis John Stuart Mill, Karl
  Marx, Max Weber, Sigmund Freud
• Religious belief and practice will decline over
  time with economic development, particularly with
  rising levels of income and education
• Religious belief is a superstition that is
  dispelled by education
• As people become better-off in this life they
  substitute current for future utility (promise of
  eternal life)
• State provision of social welfare and social
  insurance is a substitute for provision by
  organized religion

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Background /Religion, Age, Gender, Health/

• Religious beliefs should change with age
• Secularization hypothesis
• Women should be more religious then man
• The decision not to belief is a risk-taking
  behavior
• ,risk is more common among mean
• Traditionally women have a responsibility of
  passing beliefs from one generation to other
• Religious people should have healthier life
• regulative, integrative, interpretative
  mechanisms

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Data

• The Gallup World Poll
• Three waves 2006,2007,2008
• Sample around 1000 individuals aged over 15
• 144 countries 351 250 observations, China is
  excluded
• Identical questionnaire in all countries
• Sample Questions
• Is religion an important part of your daily
  life?
• Have you attended a place of worship or
  religious service within the last 7 days?
• Are you satisfied or dissatisfied wit your
  personal health?
• Did you have enough energy to get things done
  yesterday?
• Did you smoke yesterday?

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Estimation Results
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Estimation Results
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Estimation Results
Religiosity and age by sex and income group
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Estimation Results
Religiosity and age by sex and major
religion
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Religion and Health (results)

• Averaged over countries, religious people report
  that they have more energy, and are more likely
  to be satisfied with their personal health
  (especially in LICs).
• For men, the benefits of religion are significant
  and likely to be universal across countries for
  marriage, for being treated with respect, for
  smoking, and for trusting the healthcare system.
  (these benefits are non-existent for women)
• No health benefits for religiosity for women in
  pain religious women are more likely to report
  disability.

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Religion and Health (results)

• The effects of religiosity on disability,
  marriage, having a friend in time of need, time
  spent with friends, and trust in the healthcare
  or medical system are similar by different age
  and income group.
• No effects of interactions between religiosity
  and age are found.

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Aging, Religion and Health conclusions

• Women are more religious than men, elderly are
  more religious then the young
• Religious people do better on a number of health
  indicators
• Diversity of the results speaks against any
  universal account of secularization
• (coefficient was positive for about half of
  the countries)
• No support for passing beliefs hypothesis
• Risk-theories are consistent with some of the
  global evidence

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Potential Drawbacks

• Weakness of the data (e.g. smoking)
• the construction of questionnaire
• International heterogeneity (i.e. cross-country
  analysis makes it difficult to observe
  independent effects of religion on health)
• The direct link between religion and health
  (religion cause people to be healthier) is still
  unclear. (i.e. personality, genetic influences,
  or other uncontrolled factors can be responsible
  for these associations)

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Issues

• We can almost never point out say what exactly
  contributed to your health status today every
  little thing you do influences your health
  status.
• How can we minimize the risk of other things
  influencing ones health status to assess the
  religion-health relationship better?
• gtgt maybe investigating the religion-child health
  relationship may be helpful

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Religion and Child Health Chiswick et al (2010)

• Aim to expand the literature on the relation
  between religion and religiosity to the overall
  health and psychological health of children and
  adolescents in the United States
• Better child health results in better adult
  health. If there is a strong association between
  religiosity and child health, religion may be a
  cause of better adult health..

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Religion and Child Health Chiswick et al (2010)

• Hypothesis (positive)
• Involvement in religious activities among youth
  reduces engagement in unhealthy behavior (i.e.
  alcohol and drug use)
• Religion can improve psychological health through
  increased self-esteem, deliverance from anxiety
  about after life, and finding meaning in life

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Religion and Child Health Chiswick et al (2010)

• Hypothesis (negative)
• Some religions discourage blood transfusions,
  vaccinations, contraception, and abortions, the
  avoidance of which may have adverse health
  consequences.
• religion can also increase feelings of guilt and
  fear

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Religion and Child Health Chiswick et al (2010)

• Data
• Child Development Supplements (CDS) conducted in
  1997 and 2002.
• The 2003 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).
• The CDS interviewed PSID families with
  children ages 0-12 in 1997 and followed up in
  2002/2003 when the children were ages 5-19.
• Sample
• 2,604 children ages 6 to 19, who were biological,
  step, adoptive or foster children or
  grandchildren of the household head

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Religion and Child Health Chiswick et al (2010)

• Dependent Variables
• Religious affiliation
• Frequency of attending religious services
• Importance of religion
• For children younger than 12 years of age,
  affiliation was proxied by the religious
  affiliation of the childs mother, or father.

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Religion and Child Health Chiswick et al (2010)

• Independent Variables
• Child overall physical health. (1excellent or
  very good health, 0good, fair, or poor).
• Childs psychological health
• Childs birth weight (benchmark5.5 pounds)
• Whether the child was breastfed
• Family Income
• Marital status
• Mothers years of schooling
• Working Mother
• Gender, race/ethnicity

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Religion and Child Health Chiswick et al (2010)

• Affiliation with a religion for youths 6-19 years
  old makes them 6.7 percentage points more likely
  to be in better overall health.
• For psychological health, the effect of religious
  affiliation is statistically significant and
  positive only for youths ages 12 to 15. The
  magnitude of the marginal effect is about half
  that of the favorable effect of living with both
  parents.
• Reported psychological health is greater for
  girls, Blacks and Hispanics (as compared to
  Whites), if the child has a religious
  affiliation.

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Religion and Child Health Chiswick et al (2010)

• The importance of religion variable (vs. not
  important), is positive and highly significant
  for overall health for ages 6 to 19 and ages 12
  to 15. The same pattern holds for psychological
  health.
• By age group, the strongest effect of religion
  and religiosity is found among those ages 12 to
  15.

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Potential Drawbacks Remarks

• Overall are youths at the age between 6 and 19 in
  the U.S. more likely to be physically healthy
  anyway?
• Remaining Issues
• Beyond family characteristics and initial health,
  does religion have any additional explanetory
  power?
• If so, how can we quantitatively asess them?