The role of spirituality and religiosity on the cognitive decline of community-dwelling older adults: a 4-year longitudinal study

Abstract

Objectives

This study aims to assess whether having religious beliefs, attending religious services and using spiritual-religious coping (SRC) are longitudinally associated with cognitive decline in community-dwelling older adults.

Methods

A 4-year longitudinal study of 261 Brazilian older adults was conducted. Hierarchical adjusted linear regression models and logistic regression models were performed to evaluate the longitudinal effects of religious beliefs, church attendance and positive and negative SRC on cognitive decline.

Results

The findings revealed that spiritual and religious beliefs at baseline could affect cognitive function in two different ways. When older adults use religiosity and spirituality (RS) in a functional positive manner, it results in better cognitive outcomes and a slower rate of decline. However, when used in a negative manner, it results in worse cognitive outcomes.

Conclusion

These results could help health care professionals address SRC among older adults, particularly those at a higher risk of cognitive decline. Considering that RS is very important for older adults, health care professionals should be aware of the beliefs of their patients and address RS in clinical practice.

Keywords:

• Aging
• religion
• spirituality
• cognitive function
• longitudinal studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Luciano Vitorino received a post-doc scholarship from the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), Alessandra Lucchetti is a Research Productivity Grantee - Level 2 from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and Giancarlo Lucchetti is a Research Productivity Grantee - Level 1D from CNPq.