A study of the well-being of healthcare workers in the United States found that those who regularly attend worship services are at a lower risk of deaths related to alcohol, drugs, or suicide, collectively known as “deaths from despair.”
According to the Harvard researchers, women who attended religious services at least once per week had a 68% lower hazard of death from despair compared to peers who did not, while men who attended worship at least once a week had a 33% lower hazard compared to men who never attended.
The study results read “… this study suggests that religious service attendance was associated with lower risk of deaths from despair among both men and women.”
Ying Chen of Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science and lead author of the study, told The Harvard Gazette that the results were “especially striking amidst the present COVID-19 pandemic.”
Chen said -“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.”
Over the past several years, several studies have been published indicating mental and physical health benefits for individuals who regularly attend worship services.
In 2018, researchers with the University of Texas at San Antonio found that people who attend religious services and pray often typically sleep better than their less religious peers.