Does religious involvement promote individual health independent of social influences? A comparative test.

Principal Investigator: Dr Amanda Nicholson, University College London Medical School. Co-investigators: Professor Richard Rose, CSPP & Dr Martin Bobak, UCL Medical School.

ESRC grant : RES-000-22-2429

A social gradient in health is perhaps the most robust and consistent finding in epidemiology. However, not everyone in stressful or deprived circumstances suffers ill-health. An individual’s beliefs and value systems will influence his/her reaction to social situations and this explanatory category has been neglected in research. Some national studies have found a correlation between different measures of individual religious involvement , such as beliefs or the social capital generated by church attendance, and health, and religious involvement now needs to be considered in context of social deprivation and health.

This project aims to test whether, and under what circumstances, religious involvement enables individuals to maintain better health than would be expected on the basis of their socio-economic conditions, behaviour and national context. Specific research questions are:

• Whether religious involvement is a source of resilience protecting individuals against the adverse health consequences of socio-economic deprivation.
• Whether the relationship between religious involvement and health varies between countries.

The research will undertake secondary analysis of three existing surveys covering all 27 member states of the European Union plus additional countries including Russia and Turkey. Each survey has a nationally representative sample and includes a variety of measures of religious involvement and health. Statistical methods will include multivariate regression and multilevel modeling.

For further details contact: amanda.nicholson@ucl.ac.uk