Healthcare professionals who attend religious services at least once a week are less likely to die despair-related deaths such as suicide, a new study suggests.
US researchers found women who attended religious services weekly had a 68 per cent lower risk of death from despair compared to those never attended.
Men who went to services at least once per week, meanwhile, had a 33 per cent lower risk of ‘death from despair’, which includes fatal illnesses as a result of drugs and alcohol.
The Harvard team looked at a data set of more than 100,000 doctors and nurses to establish the link between religious services and a healthy, despair-free life.
They say religious participation may be a way to sustain ‘a sense of hope and meaning’ in the face of work-based pressure that can lead to grief-stricken thoughts.
Religious beliefs also helps us see the human body as a ‘temple’ worthy of protection and care, which could limit consumption of harmful substances.
People who attended religious services at least once a week were less likely to die from ‘deaths of despair’, including deaths related to suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol poisoning
Healthcare processionals have a suicide rate more than twice that of the general population, which may be partly associated with chronic burnout at work – a stat that could be compounded by the current viral health pandemic.
The results suggest religious services could help avoid suicidal thoughts during the COVID-19 crisis, especially for under-pressure medical staff.
‘These results are perhaps especially striking amidst the present COVID-19 pandemic,’ said study author Ying Chen at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science.
‘They are striking in part because clinicians are facing such extreme work demands and difficult conditions, and in part because many religious services have been suspended.
‘We need to think what might be done to extend help to those at risk for despair.’
An increase in deaths related to suicide, drugs and alcohol – known as ‘deaths of despair’ – has been identified as a public health crisis.
While the term ‘deaths of despair’ was originally coined in the context of working-class Americans struggling with unemployment, it is now relevant more broadly, the researchers claim.
In particular, deaths of despair could affect global healthcare professionals who may be struggling with excessive demands and burnout, or to anyone facing loss.
For this study, the term was widened to include chronic diseases – liver disease and cirrhosis – and unintentional poisoning by alcohol and drug overdoses, with the thinking that they are likely a result of despair.
For this study, researchers analysed data on 66,492 female registered nurses from the Nurses’ Health Study II – one of the US’s largest investigations of disease risk factors in women.
The research sampled data from more than 100,000 health professionals. The results suggest religious services can help avoid suicidal thoughts during the COVID-19 crisis, especially for under pressure medical staff
Data was also taken the university’s 30-year-old Health Professionals Follow-Up Study on 43,141 male health care professionals, including dentists, pharmacists, optometrists and veterinarians.
Information on religious attendance was extracted from self-reported questionnaires – in particular, the question ‘how often do you go to religious meetings or services?’ – while information on cause of death was taken from death certificates and medical records.
Among the women, there were 75 deaths from despair – 43 suicides, 20 deaths from poisoning and 12 deaths from liver disease and cirrhosis, while among the men there were 306 deaths from despair – 197 suicides, 6 deaths from poisoning and 103 deaths from liver diseases and cirrhosis.
Even death solely from suicide was less common for those who went to church – there was a 75 per cent lower hazard of suicide in the women’s cohort and a 48 per cent lower hazard in the men’s when attending services at least once per week, compared with those never attending.
Professor Chen said her research team have hypothesised a few reasons for how religious services may help prevent deaths of despair.
The study counted liver disease as a ‘death of despair’. This is because despair can lead to alcoholism, and alcoholism can lead to liver disease
‘First, participation in religious community may provide social support and encouragement when individuals deal with hard times, and second, religious communities may also foster a sense of greater hope, meaning and purpose that can help during times of struggle,’ she told MailOnline.
‘Religious teachings on the value and inherent worth and dignity of each and every life and that suicide is thus wrong likewise likely contribute.
‘Religious teachings may also help make better sense of suffering and assist people in finding meaning within suffering – in opportunities for growth in character, in a turning to God in faith and hope, in re-evaluating one’s purposes and values.’
Limitations of the study include the fact that it solely sampled data from health professionals, which may mean the findings can’t be applied to other people
Drugs and alcohol consumption and the related medical conditions were also linked to despair – which may be questionable for people with liver disease who have led a despair-free life.
The study has been published in JAMA Psychiatry.
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