Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: A review
Persistent population aging worldwide is focusing attention on modifiable factors that can improve later life health. There is evidence that religiosity and spirituality are among such factors. Older people tend to have high rates of involvement in religious and/or spiritual endeavors and it is poss...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2016-12-01
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| Series: | SSM: Population Health |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827316300179 |
| _version_ | 1811204913058807808 |
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| author | Zachary Zimmer Carol Jagger Chi-Tsun Chiu Mary Beth Ofstedal Florencia Rojo Yasuhiko Saito |
| author_facet | Zachary Zimmer Carol Jagger Chi-Tsun Chiu Mary Beth Ofstedal Florencia Rojo Yasuhiko Saito |
| author_sort | Zachary Zimmer |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Persistent population aging worldwide is focusing attention on modifiable factors that can improve later life health. There is evidence that religiosity and spirituality are among such factors. Older people tend to have high rates of involvement in religious and/or spiritual endeavors and it is possible that population aging will be associated with increasing prevalence of religious and spiritual activity worldwide. Despite increasing research on religiosity, spirituality and health among older persons, population aging worldwide suggests the need for a globally integrated approach. As a step toward this, we review a subset of the literature on the impact of religiosity and spirituality on health in later life. We find that much of this has looked at the relationship between religiosity/spirituality and longevity as well as physical and mental health. Mechanisms include social support, health behaviors, stress and psychosocial factors. We identify a number of gaps in current knowledge. Many previous studies have taken place in the U.S. and Europe. Much data is cross-sectional, limiting ability to make causal inference. Religiosity and spirituality can be difficult to define and distinguish and the two concepts are often considered together, though on balance religiosity has received more attention than spirituality. The latter may however be equally important. Although there is evidence that religiosity is associated with longer life and better physical and mental health, these outcomes have been investigated separately rather than together such as in measures of health expectancy. In conclusion, there is a need for a unified and nuanced approach to understanding how religiosity and spirituality impact on health and longevity within a context of global aging, in particular whether they result in longer healthy life rather than just longer life. Keywords: Aging, Global aging, Health expectancy, Older adults, Mindfulness, Mortality, Religion, Spirituality |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T03:21:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-39cc4715321b41fb9d27f174716150dd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2352-8273 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T03:21:42Z |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | SSM: Population Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-39cc4715321b41fb9d27f174716150dd2022-12-22T03:49:52ZengElsevierSSM: Population Health2352-82732016-12-012373381Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: A reviewZachary Zimmer0Carol Jagger1Chi-Tsun Chiu2Mary Beth Ofstedal3Florencia Rojo4Yasuhiko Saito5University of California, San Francisco, USA; Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada; Correspondence to: Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, 3333 California Street, Suite 455, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA.Newcastle University, UKAcademia Sinica, TaiwanUniversity of Michigan, USAUniversity of California, San Francisco, USANihon University, JapanPersistent population aging worldwide is focusing attention on modifiable factors that can improve later life health. There is evidence that religiosity and spirituality are among such factors. Older people tend to have high rates of involvement in religious and/or spiritual endeavors and it is possible that population aging will be associated with increasing prevalence of religious and spiritual activity worldwide. Despite increasing research on religiosity, spirituality and health among older persons, population aging worldwide suggests the need for a globally integrated approach. As a step toward this, we review a subset of the literature on the impact of religiosity and spirituality on health in later life. We find that much of this has looked at the relationship between religiosity/spirituality and longevity as well as physical and mental health. Mechanisms include social support, health behaviors, stress and psychosocial factors. We identify a number of gaps in current knowledge. Many previous studies have taken place in the U.S. and Europe. Much data is cross-sectional, limiting ability to make causal inference. Religiosity and spirituality can be difficult to define and distinguish and the two concepts are often considered together, though on balance religiosity has received more attention than spirituality. The latter may however be equally important. Although there is evidence that religiosity is associated with longer life and better physical and mental health, these outcomes have been investigated separately rather than together such as in measures of health expectancy. In conclusion, there is a need for a unified and nuanced approach to understanding how religiosity and spirituality impact on health and longevity within a context of global aging, in particular whether they result in longer healthy life rather than just longer life. Keywords: Aging, Global aging, Health expectancy, Older adults, Mindfulness, Mortality, Religion, Spiritualityhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827316300179 |
| spellingShingle | Zachary Zimmer Carol Jagger Chi-Tsun Chiu Mary Beth Ofstedal Florencia Rojo Yasuhiko Saito Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: A review SSM: Population Health |
| title | Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: A review |
| title_full | Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: A review |
| title_fullStr | Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: A review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: A review |
| title_short | Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: A review |
| title_sort | spirituality religiosity aging and health in global perspective a review |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827316300179 |
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