UMMS Affiliation

Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences; Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine

Publication Date

2019-08-13

Document Type

Data

Disciplines

Alternative and Complementary Medicine | Cardiology | Cardiovascular Diseases | Clinical Epidemiology | Epidemiology | Health Services Administration | Religion

Abstract

Manuscript abstract:

Background: Prior studies of healthy populations have found religious practices to be associated with survival. However, no contemporary studies have examined whether religiosity influences survival among patients discharged from the hospital after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The present study examined the relationship between religious practices and 2-year all-cause mortality among hospital survivors of an ACS.

Methods: Patients hospitalized for an ACS were recruited from 6 medical centers in Massachusetts and Georgia between 2011 and 2013. Study participants self-reported three items assessing religiosity: strength/comfort from religion, petition prayers for health, and awareness of intercessory prayers by others. All cause-mortality within 2-years of hospital discharge was ascertained by review of medical records at participating study hospitals and from death certificates. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the multivariable adjusted risk of 2-year all-cause mortality.

Results: Participants (n=2,068) were on average 61 years old, 34% were women, and 81% were non-Hispanic White. Approximately 85% derived strength/comfort from religion, 61% prayed for their health, and 89% were aware of intercessions. Overall, 6% died within 2 years post-discharge. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables (age, sex, and race/ethnicity), petition prayers were associated with an increased risk of 2-year all-cause mortality (HR: 1.64; 95% CI: 1.01-2.66). With further adjustment for several clinical and psychosocial measures, this association was no longer statistically significant. Strength/comfort from religion and intercessory prayers were not significantly associated with mortality.

Conclusions: Most ACS survivors acknowledge deriving strength and comfort from religion, praying for their health, and intercessions made by others for their health. Although the reported religious practices were not associated with post-discharge survival after multivariable adjustment, acknowledging that patients utilize their religious beliefs and practices as strategies to improve their health would ensure a more holistic approach to patient management.

Keywords

Acute Coronary Syndrome, Survival, Religiosity, Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Rights and Permissions

This is an open access work, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.

DOI of Published Version

10.13028/s3xe-0y81

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Plos One

Comments

Methodology is documented in manuscript.

Data collection: April 2011 through May 2014.

Related Resources

This dataset is the primary data source for the following published study: Abu HO, Lapane KL, Waring ME, Ulbricht CM, Devereaux RS, McManus DD, Allison JJ, Kiefe CI, Goldberg RJ. Religious practices and long-term survival after hospital discharge for an acute coronary syndrome. PLoS One. 2019 Oct 4;14(10):e0223442. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223442. eCollection 2019. PubMed PMID: 31584980; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6777785.

Additional Files
TRACE-CORE Dataset on Religiosity and Survival.csv (699 kB)
TRACE_CORE_Dataset_on_Religiosity_and_Survival (csv format)
TRACE-CORE Dataset on Religiosity and Survival - data-dictionary.csv (1 kB)
Data dictionary
readme_TRACE-CORE.txt (13 kB)
README file
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