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MESA: Greater religiosity not associated with reduced CVD events
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Unlike findings from previous studies, results from a cross-sectional study suggested that the degree of an individual’s religious involvement had no association with improvement in CVD or with the reduction of CVD events.
Researchers for the MESA study enrolled and examined 5,474 white, black, Hispanic and Chinese participants free of clinical CVD and aged 45 to 84 years. At baseline, participants provided responses regarding their religiosity in a questionnaire. Specifically, participants indicated frequency of religious participation, frequency of prayer or meditation and spirituality. The researchers collected information on risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, diabetes and medication use. Also recorded at intervals of nine to 12 months were events related to CVD, such as CHD death, MI, hospitalized unstable angina, stroke, transient ischemic attack, congestive HF or other CVD death.
There were 152 incident CVD events during the mean follow-up period of 4.1 years, including nine CVD deaths, 42 MI, 53 hospitalizations for unstable angina, 11 transient ischemic attacks, 13 cases of congestive HF and 24 strokes. Following adjustment for demographics, the researchers reported that participants who attended religious services daily were more likely to be obese (OR=1.57; 95% CI, 1.12-1.72) and less likely to smoke (OR=0.39; 95% CI, 0.26-0.58) than those who never attended religious services.
The researchers reported similar results for individuals with high levels of spirituality and those who practiced frequent prayer or meditation. There were also no consistent patterns of association between measurements of religiosity and the presence or extent of subclinical CVD at baseline as well as between measurements of religiosity and incident CVD events during the four-year follow-up period.
In their clinical perspective, the researchers discussed their interest in the reported associations between religiosity and the decreased likelihood of smoking, as well as with the increased likelihood of obesity.
“The consistent and significant association found between religiosity and obesity in this cross-sectional study raises some interesting questions,” they wrote. “Ultimately, this observation should encourage interaction between health care providers, public health officials and the religious community in an effort to improve obesity education and prevention.”
Feinstein M. Circulation. 2010;121:659-666.