Praying for Health by Older Adults in the United States: Differences by Ethnicity, Gender, and Income

Abstract

We studied praying for health using data from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey (n = 10,096), representing 89.6 million Americans ages 50+. Unadjusted analysis and multivariate logistic regression accounted for the survey design. Nearly 49.4 million older adults prayed for health. African Americans and Hispanics were more much likely to do so than whites, with adjusted odds ratios 2.79 and 1.86 (both p < .0001). Adjusted odds for women were nearly twice those of men (p < .0001). Those with lower income were more likely to pray for health (p < .0001). Health and social services providers should be sensitive older adults' spiritual needs.

Keywords:

• African Americans
• aging
• complementary and alternative medicine
• health
• Hispanics
• Latinos
• religion
• spirituality

Acknowledgments

We thank three anonymous reviewers and James Ellor, PhD, for useful comments on an earlier version of this article. We are grateful to William D. Siegfried, Jr., PhD, and M. Maka Tsulukidze, MD, MPH, MPA, for their valuable contributions to this research.