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Frequent churchgoers may be less likely to drink heavily or smoke than
those who attend church less frequently, according to the results of a
30-year study. And those who do smoke or drink may be more likely to quit
once they start going to church regularly.
Not all of the regular attendees started off with such good behaviors.
To some extent, their good health behaviors occurred in conjunction with
their attendance.
For example, regular churchgoers who
reported smoking at the beginning of the study were almost
80% more likely to have kicked the
habit than the less-frequent attendees, and those who initially reported
depression were more than twice as likely
to have stopped being depressed, study findings show.
The study was supported by grants from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention and the National Institute on Aging.
Annals of Behavioral Medicine February
2001; 23: 68-74
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