Changes in health status and frequency of attending religious services among medical inpatients with repeat admissions.

Although frequent attendance at religious services is associated with healthier behaviors and improved health outcomes, this relationship is confounded to the extent that attending religious services requires and displays a certain degree of health. This study surveyed patients over multiple hospitalizations at a large urban academic medical center to test the hypothesis that changes in health status would be accompanied by parallel changes in religious attendance but not with self-rated religiosity and spirituality. Study data confirmed the hypothesis, suggesting that cross-sectional associations between religious attendance and good health outcomes reflect, to some degree, the way changes in health status impact one's ability to attend religious services.