Kleiman EM, et al. – This study was designed not only to evaluate whether religious service attendance conferred protection from suicide even after accounting for strength of religious affiliation but also to assess whether the association between religious service attendance and suicide was subject to period effects. Results of this study suggested that religious service attendance was protective among those in later data collection periods.

Methods

• This investigation draws on data from the 1978 - 2010 General Social Survey, a nationally representative study of 30,650 non-institutionalized, English-speaking American residents age 18 or older.
• Information were connected with the National Death Index through the end of 2014.
• Using moderated Cox proportional hazard analyses, these data were analyzed.

Results

• The results of this study showed that religious affiliation had no association with suicide.
• It was observed in the findings that religious service attendance only had a protective effect against suicide death among those in later (2000 – 2010) rather than earlier (1998 and earlier) information gathering periods.