Religious / spiritual community participation
Nurses' Health Study (n=74,534, 16-year follow-up): weekly attendance associated with substantially lower mortality.
Why
Li, VanderWeele and colleagues tracked 74,534 women in the Nurses' Health Study for 16 years. Attending religious services more than once per week was associated with 33% lower all-cause mortality vs. never attending. Effect persisted after adjusting for diet, exercise, smoking, and social integration. The active ingredient appears to be regular communal practice: what tradition is less critical than that there is one.
How to do it
How
Find a community with weekly cadence and shared practice. The prospective effect appears strongest at weekly+ attendance.
Ideal for
Anyone who finds meaning in or around a faith tradition; secular equivalents (humanist communities, meditation sanghas, philosophical fellowships) likely capture some of the same effect.
Evidence
Li 2016 JAMA Intern Med (Nurses' Health Study, n=74,534 women, 16-y follow-up): attending religious services more than once weekly was associated with 33% lower all-cause mortality (HR 0.67) vs never-attenders, with social support mediating ~23% of the effect, smoking ~22%, and lower depression ~11%. Effect persisted after adjusting for diet, exercise, and smoking.