Resources on Aging

"Over the past hundred years, researchers have conducted more than twelve hundred studies on the connection between religion and physical and mental health. Often this association is clearest among the elderly, who, as we have seen, draw on expensive healthcare resources in greater proportion than the younger population. A growing volume of research suggests both young and old religious people enjoy better emotional well-being and optimistic outlook, lower levels of depression (of reduced severity), less need for healthcare, and shorter hospitalizations than those with less robust religious faith. And it is especially noteworthy that the religiously active and privately devout healthy elderly enjoy significantly improved longevity when compared to their less religious peers in some studies."

—From Faith in the Future: Healthcare, Aging, and the Role of Religion by Harold G. Koenig and Douglas M. Lawson with Malcolm McConnell

Questions

• As the health care system becomes more and more taxed by our aging population, where can we find additional support networks or structures?

• What are some concrete examples of the health benefits that are thought to be linked to religious practice or spirituality?

• Is the idealized post-retirement "leisure lifestyle" really all that great? Are there any alternatives to it?