Biological and Psychosocial Manifestations of Religion

宗教的生物学和心理社会表现

• 批准号: 7125094
• 负责人: GARY E. FRASER
• 金额: $ 31.44万
• 依托单位: LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-30 至 2010-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7125094
• 关键词: African American; adult human (21+); aging; behavioral /social science research tag; biomarker; blood tests; cardiovascular disorder risk; caucasian American; clinical research; coping; health; health behavior; human mortality; human subject; immune system; inflammation; longitudinal human study; psychological models; psychometrics; quality of life; questionnaires; racial /ethnic difference; religion; religious group; stress

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although the modern sociological study of religion is almost a hundred years old, only recently have behavioral scientists probed religious/spiritual life for its possible health outcomes. The results demonstrate a usually positive correlation between religious involvement and health and mortality. To date, much of the research in this emerging field has used broad measures (e.g. religious attendance), surveyed small, regional populations, and utilized a paucity of minority peoples. In this longitudinal study we plan: 1. To examine particular manifestations of religious experience (e.g. dimensions of prayer and contrasting concepts of God), and their associations with quality of life and cause specific mortality in a Protestant group possessing generally good health outcomes, and increasingly characterized by diversity; 2. To investigate whether these same manifestations of religious experience have different associations with quality of life and cause-specific mortality in two ethnic groups (African- and [Euro- Americans); 3. To examine the possible relationships of these manifestations of religious experience to biochemical and physiological indicators of stress, immune system function, and aging. This prospective study is planned as a complement to LLU's Adventist Health Study-2, currently funded by NCI and enrolling 125,000 participants from across the United States. Whereas AHS-2 focuses on diet and its effect on cancer incidence, our research involving 10,000 of AHS-2 participants will explore how religious beliefs and practices may affect not only mortality but also quality of life. Further, 500 members of the proposed study, ages 50-95+, will live in the Loma Linda vicinity, and participate in the study's clinical arm that will ascertain possible biological and physiological mediators of religious effect. This study should further current understanding of how various manifestations of religion positively and negatively affect physical and mental health.

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管现代宗教社会学研究已有近一百年的历史，但直到最近，行为科学家才开始探讨宗教/精神生活可能对健康产生的影响。结果表明，宗教参与与健康和死亡率之间通常呈正相关。迄今为止，这一新兴领域的许多研究都使用了广泛的衡量标准（例如宗教出席率），调查了小规模的区域人口，并利用了少数少数民族。 在这项纵向研究中，我们计划： 1. 考察宗教体验的特定表现（例如，祈祷的维度和上帝的对比概念），以及它们与生活质量的关联，以及在总体健康状况良好的新教群体中导致特定死亡率的关系，以及日益呈现出多样性的特点； 2. 调查宗教经历的这些相同表现是否与两个种族群体（非洲人和[欧美人]）的生活质量和特定原因死亡率有不同的关联； 3. 研究宗教体验的这些表现与压力、免疫系统功能和衰老的生化和生理指标之间的可能关系。 这项前瞻性研究计划作为 LLU 复临信徒健康研究 2 的补充，该研究目前由 NCI 资助，并招募了来自美国各地的 125,000 名参与者。 AHS-2 重点关注饮食及其对癌症发病率的影响，而我们涉及 10,000 名 AHS-2 参与者的研究将探讨宗教信仰和习俗如何影响死亡率和生活质量。此外，拟议研究的 500 名年龄在 50 岁至 95 岁以上的成员将居住在洛马琳达附近，并参与该研究的临床部分，以确定宗教效应可能的生物和生理介质。这项研究应进一步加深目前对宗教的各种表现如何对身心健康产生积极和消极影响的理解。