Source
Department of Religion, Health, and Human Values, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA. george_fitchett@rush.edu
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
There is reasonable evidence that religious beliefs and activities are associated with lower blood pressure and less hypertension. It is not known if daily spiritual experiences have similar effects.
PURPOSE:
We examined the relationship between an eight-item version of the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) and hypertension.
METHODS:
With data from 1,060 Caucasian and 598 African-American midlife women participating in Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, in race-stratified models, we used regression equations, logistic regression, and mixed effects regression to estimate the relationship between DSES group and SBP and hypertensive status.
RESULTS:
We found little difference across DSES groups in adjusted mean SBP for either Caucasian or African-American women. Nor did DSES protect against 3-year increases in SBP, hypertensive status, or incident hypertension.
CONCLUSIONS:
Daily spiritual experiences do not appear protective for SBP or hypertension in midlife women. Further research should examine factors that condition the religion-BP relationship.