THE KUKMIN DAILY

In its May 16 (local time) report, British online newspaper “The Independent” quoted the results of research by Harvard University’s School of Public Health showing that persons who attend church regularly live an average five months longer than those who don’t go to church at all. The research report was carried by “JAMA Internal Medicine,” the journal of the American Medical Association.

The research was based on data collected on 74,000 middle-aged women by the “US Nurses’ Health Study.” The research team also reported that “compared to women who never attended religious services, church members who attended such services more than once a week were 33% less likely to die (during the study period).”

The research team explained that the act of attending worship may influence people’s habits, social pressures, or loneliness, causing them to seek more social connection. “In examining the potential pathways from religious service to all-cause mortality, we found that depressive symptoms, smoking, social support and optimism were potentially important mediators,” the team said.

The average age of the research participants was 60, and the majority were Protestant or Catholic. 13,500 of them died during the period of the study, which lasted 16 years.

Reporter Mina Kim (mina@kmib.co.kr), with Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)
Illustration by Young Eun Lee


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