Religious young adults ‘more likely to become obese by middle age’
March 25th, 2011 - 5:09 pm ICT by ANIWashington, March 25 (ANI): A new Northwestern Medicine study has found that young adults who frequently attend religious activities are 50 percent more likely to become obese by middle age than young adults with no religious involvement.
This is the first longitudinal study to examine the development of obesity in people with various degrees of religious involvement.
“We don’t know why frequent religious participation is associated with development of obesity, but the upshot is these findings highlight a group that could benefit from targeted efforts at obesity prevention,” said Matthew Feinstein, the study’s lead investigator.
“It’s possible that getting together once a week and associating good works and happiness with eating unhealthy foods could lead to the development of habits that are associated with greater body weight and obesity,” he said.
The study, which tracked 2,433 men and women for 18 years, found normal weight young adults ages 20 to 32 years with a high frequency of religious participation were 50 percent more likely to be obese by middle age after adjusting for differences in age, race, sex, education, income and baseline body mass index.
High frequency of religious participation was defined as attending a religious function at least once a week.
The men and women in the study were part of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) multi-center study, supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
The research is being presented at the American Heart Association’s scientific sessions 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia. (ANI)
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