American women who attend a church service once a week or more are five times less likely to commit suicide compared with those who never go to a religious gathering, according to a new study. Attendance at religious services once per week or more was associated with an approximately five-fold lower rate of suicide compared with never attending religious services, found the study, which 89,708 women aged 30 to 55 years participated in from across the United States, published this week in JAMA Psychiatry.
Among the 89,708 women, 17,028 attended a religious service more than once per week, 36,488 attended once per week, 14,548 attended less than once per week, and 21,644 never attended. The study looked at associations between religious service attendance and suicide from 1996 through June 2010 using data from the Nurses’ Health Study. READ MORE
