Health and religiosity among Israeli Jews
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The objective of this paper is to explore the connection between self-reported health and religiosity among Israeli Jews, using several self-reported health measures. METHODS: Data were collected by two health surveys covering 1999 individuals in 1993 and 2505 individuals in 2000, representing the population of Jewish Israelis aged 45-75 years residing in urban communities in those years. Self-reported health was measured by (i) reported chronic conditions, (ii) the SF-36 instrument, and (iii) a visual analogue scale of health-related quality of life. Religiosity was measured by a self-reported five-category scale. RESULTS: Controlling for a large array of socio-demographic characteristics, while no religiosity gradient was found in reported chronic morbidity, religious persons generally report worse health than secular persons on the other measures. The gap is larger in the SF-36's role-performance scales, and among women and Israelis from Asian-African origin. DISCUSSION: The mixed results are consistent with the ambiguity of the religiosity effect on health reported in recent surveys. However, trying to reconcile between longer life expectancy of religious persons found in earlier Israeli and other research and poorer reported health found above, the paper emphasizes the possible differences in the perception of 'normal' life and roles, and argues that the SF-36 health measures might suffer from a religiosity-related reporting heterogeneity, distorting their association with mortality in the population.
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Considering the 33 highest quality studies, 13 (39%) reported significantly better physical functioning among those who were more R/S (including one study at a trend level).
“Considering the 33 highest quality studies, 13 (39%) reported significantly better physical functioning among those who were more R/S (including one study at a trend level) [483–495], six (18%) found worse functioning [496–501], and five studies (15%) reported mixed results [82, 124, 502–504] (significant positive and negative associations, depending on R/S characteristic).”
From Religion, Spirituality, and Health: The Research and Clinical Implications (2012) · cites this paper as [492]
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Religion, Spirituality, and Health: The Research and Clinical Implications
Koenig, H. G. (2012) · ISRN Psychiatry · doi:10.5402/2012/278730 · Cited by 2,423 · see citing works
“%) found worse functioning [496–501], and five studies (15”
Background
- Authors
- Shmueli, A.
- Affiliations
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
- Corresponding author
- Shmueli, A.
- Venue
- The European Journal of Public Health
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2006-07-28
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 104-111
- ISSN
- 1101-1262 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-360X
- OpenAlex
- W2130583481
- Cited by
- 63
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 41 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2015: 2 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 0.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Journal of Public Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Religion and Society Interactions
- Keywords
- religiosity, self-reported health, Israeli Jews, chronic disease, health-related quality of life, SF-36, role performance, secularism, health perception, life expectancy, women, immigrant origin
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Ethnicity, Female, Health Status, Health Surveys, Humans, Israel, Jews, Male, Middle Aged, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Religion, Self Disclosure, Sex Factors, Socioeconomic Factors, Urban Population
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