A longitudinal study has found that religion and spirituality are not important psychosocial factors in influencing body weight, finding no association between religious or spiritual coping, religious service attendance, obesity, and weight change. This research was published in the Journal of Religion and Health.
Approximately two-thirds of the United States (U.S.) population is overweight or obese, the product of a combination of biological, environmental and psychosocial causes. Religion and spirituality may be a psychosocial factor of particular relevance, given it shapes social relationships, ideology, social norms, and lifestyle.
Religion as a social institution in the U.S. is relatively high compared to other Western democracies. Many studies have found a positive association between religiosity/spirituality and body weight. However, longitudinal and causal evidence have been limited and heterogenous with conflicting results.
Proposed explanations for the social mechanisms through which religion/spirituality may impact body weight have centered around mediators, particularly lifestyle factors (e.g., diet, physical activity, smoking, alcohol use), which have been linked to participating in religious/spiritual institutions, and behavior regulation based on religious codes of conduct.
Nicholas D. Spence and colleagues obtained data from the Nurses’ Health Study II, a prospective cohort study examining risk factors for chronic diseases beginning in 1989, with follow-up occurring from 2001 to 2015. Up to 35,547 participants were assessed for religious or spiritual coping, and religious service attendance; the sample included predominantly White, female nurses in the U.S. between ages 25-42 at the time of enrollment.
Participants provided ratings on items from religion and spirituality measures, such as “How often do you go to religious meetings or services?” and “I try to find comfort in my religion or spiritual beliefs.” A measure of body mass index was obtained in 1989, with participants self-reporting weight in biennial surveys. Participants with a body mass index greater than 30 were classified as obese.
Various covariates were identified, including demographic (e.g., age, income, race, region of residence), stress (e.g., abuse, birthweight, age at menarche), clinical (e.g., menopausal status, depression, parity), lifestyle (e.g., physical activity, alcohol, sleep), and social integration.
The researchers found no evidence of any association between religious/spiritual coping, religious service attendance, obesity, and weight change. Further, they found no support for the social mechanisms of action of religiosity/spirituality (e.g., lifestyle factors) on obesity and weight change. They concluded that religion/spirituality does not have a clinical role as a psychosocial determinant of body weight in this sample.
Given the limited diversity of the sample, one important limitation is the low external validity of this work. Further, the homogenization of various religious denominations could be a problem. For example, while Seventh-day Adventists have a low incidence of obesity, reflecting the restrictive health promoting lifestyle practices they engage in, Baptists tend to have a higher rate of obesity, which may reflect the role of high calorie foods in religious functions, as well as the less restrictive norms surrounding food consumption.
The study, “The Association of Religion and Spirituality with Obesity and Weight Change in the USA: A Large‑Scale Cohort Study”, was authored by Nicholas D. Spence, Erica T. Warner, Maryam S. Farvid, Tyler J. VanderWeele, Ying Zhang, Frank B. Hu, and Alexandra E. Shields.
