Studies show that involvement in a religious group allows those members to live longer:
A recent study finds that people who regularly attend religious services live approximately four years longer than average. Researchers built the study from previous data suggesting that social interaction, volunteer work, and healthy habits can lead to a longer life. While one could point to gym memberships and service clubs as offering similar results, there are unique benefits to church attendance that are difficult to measure. Consistent engagement with a community of believers deepens faith, enriches the soul, and may be the real key to longevity.
https://www.apu.edu/articles/why-do-religious-people-live-longer/#:~:text=A%20recent%20study%20finds%20that,lead%20to%20a%20longer%20life.A number of studies have shown associations between attending religious services and living a long time. One of the most comprehensive, published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2016, found that women who went to any kind of religious service more than once a week had a 33% lower chance than their secular peers of dying during the 16-year study-follow-up period. Another study, published last year in PLOS One, found that regular service attendance was linked to reductions in the body’s stress responses and even in mortality–so much so that worshippers were 55% less likely to die during the up to 18-year follow-up period than people who didn’t frequent the temple, church or mosque.
You don’t have to become a nun to get these health benefits, however. The simple act of congregating with a like-minded community might deserve much of the credit. Tyler VanderWeele, one of the authors of the JAMA study and a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says factors related to churchgoing–like having a network of social support, an optimistic attitude, better self-control and a sense of purpose in life–may account for the long-life benefits seen in his study and others.
Indeed, it’s also the values drawn from religious tradition–such as “respect, compassion, gratitude, charity, humility, harmony, meditation and preservation of health”–that seem to predict longevity, not the dogma preached at the altar, says Howard Friedman, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, and co-author of the book The Longevity Project.
Fostering these qualities may even affect rates of chronic disease, says Marino Bruce, a co-author of the PLOS One study and a research associate professor of medicine, health and society at Vanderbilt University. “Having that sense that you’re not in the world alone, that you are part of a power larger than oneself, can give one confidence to deal with the issues of life,” Bruce says. “Biologically, if that reduces stress, then that means you’re less likely to have high blood pressure or diabetes or things that can increase mortality.”
https://time.com/5159848/do-religious-people-live-longer/also:
Researchers have shown, for example, that Americans who regularly attend religious services tend to live longer.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/01/31/religions-relationship-to-happiness-civic-engagement-and-health-around-the-world/#fn-31143-1
