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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Patterns of religious practice and belief in the last year of life | | Author(s) | Ellen L Idler, Stanislav V Kasl, Judith C Hays |
| Journal title | Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 56B, no 6, November 2001 |
| Pages | pp S326-S334 |
| Keywords | Spiritual characteristics [elderly] ; Religion ; Dying ; Cross sectional surveys ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | There is little empirical evidence to support a widely-held assumption that issues of religious faith become more salient at the end of life. The authors used data from the New Haven site of the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE). The 2,812 subjects' self-reports of attendance at services, self-ratings of religiousness, and strength and comfort felt from religion were assessed in 1982 and in follow-up interviews in 1985, 1988 and 1994. Comparisons of religiousness were made for those in their last 6 months of life, their last 12 months of life, and those surviving longer than 12 months. Although religious attendance at services was found to decline in the near-deceased, this group showed either stability or a small increase in feelings of religiousness and strength or comfort received from religion. Overall attendance and religious feelings were high for this religiously diverse sample. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020107214 A |
| Classmark | EX: TR: CX: 3KB: 3J: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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