Driving Status and Religious Service Attendance among Older Americans

ABSTRACT

We investigated the relationship between driving status and religious service attendance among older Americans and how the perceived importance of religion influences the relationship. Data are from the 2012 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (n = 9,660). After controlling for covariates, the odds of regular religious service attendance were reduced by 55% for non-drivers relative to active drivers among those who indicated that religion was very important in their lives. No significant association was observed in those who rated religion as somewhat/not too important. Future research should explore how non-drivers who value religion make decisions about religious service attendance.

KEYWORDS:

• Church attendance
• driving cessation
• social participation
• transportation

Acknowledgments

Publicly available HRS data files (HRSXREGION14, trk2014TR_R) and HRS data prepared by the RAND Center for the Study of Aging (RANDHRS Version O, hd10f5c, h12f1a) were used for this analysis. The HRS is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (grant number NIA U01AG009740) and is conducted by the University of Michigan. Production of the RAND HRS data files is supported by the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.