ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies six theoretical viewpoints which have guided gerontological research on religion and health. Each of these offers different predictions regarding the nature of the relationship between religion and health as people grow old. It reviews empirical findings addressing religion, health, and aging. Institutionalized and noninstitutionalized subjects were combined, nearly all of the subjects were females, what was meant by “religious adjustment” is uncertain, and the failure to detect a significant difference may have been a function of insufficient statistical power. Reports of statistically significant associations between religion and health and well-being are of two types. First, three studies have linked religious attendance to general measures of personal adjustment or well-being. Second, there is some evidence that nonorganizational religious involvement may, in fact, be inversely related to well-being in the aged, although findings are mixed.
