Reference |
Journal; Year; Location |
Design |
Instruments used to evaluate functional capacity and religiosity |
Sample |
Main findings |
Santos et al.3
|
Ciência & Saúde Coletiva (Science and Collective Health); 2013; Bambuí, Minas Gerais |
- Ethnographic observational - Qualitative |
Semi-structured interview in which the elderly were asked to talk about life and about their health conditions and eventual experience of functional disability. |
57 elderly persons registered in a Basic Health Unit - Saturation criterion used to regulate sample size |
Religious beliefs and traditions have proven to be an important tool for coping with disability4
|
Berges, Kuo and Markides12
|
Experimental Aging Research -2007 -Texas, USA |
- Cross-sectional - Quantitative |
- BADL and IADL: Katz index, Guttman functional health scale. - Functional Mobility: Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment (Poma) - Religiosity: direct question “how often do you attend church or religious activities?” |
118 non-institutionalized Hispanic adults (of Mexican origin), who had suffered a stroke - Representative sample of around 500,000 Hispanic elderly persons |
Frequent participation in religious activities was associated with a reduced decline in the performance of BADLs (p=0.017) and IADLs (p=0.05) in the elderly post-stroke. |
Arcury et al.13
|
The Journal of Rural Health -2013 -North Carolina, USA |
- Transversal - Quantitative |
- BADL and IADL: Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) functionality scale - Religiosity: the authors created questions and scores about public and private religious practices. |
701 elderly diabetics from rural areas with different ethnicities (American, African American and white) - Randomized, stratified sample. |
Improved functional capacity was associated with public religious practices (p<0.05). There was no association between functional capacity and intrinsic religious practices. |
Park et al.14
|
Research on aging -2008 -Alabama, USA |
-Observacional longitudinal - Quantitative |
- BADL and IADL: Lawton Scale. - Religiosity: Duke Religiosity scale (DUREL) |
784 American elderly persons living in the community - Sample stratified by municipal region, ethnicity and gender. |
The frequent participation in religious activities was associated with less difficulty in the performance of BADLs (p =0.001) and IADLs (p=0.05), however, a longitudinal protective effect was detected only for IADLs (p=0.05). |
Hybels et al.15
|
The Gerontologist -2012 -North Carolina, USA |
- Longitudinal - Quantitative |
- BADL and IADL: Katz index, Fillenbaum scale. - Functional mobility: Guttman functional health scale. - Religiosity: direct question “how often do you go to religious events?”, “how often do you watch or listen to religious programs on TV or the radio?’’, how often do you spend time on private religious activities such as praying, medication or religious study?’’ |
2.924 elderly Americans living in the community -Representative sample of five municipal regions in the state of North Carolina |
A greater frequency in religious activities was associated with reduced limitations in BADLs, IADLs and in mobility (p<0.0001). Watching religious programs on TV or listening on the radio was associated with the greater development of limitations in IADLs and mobility (p<0.0001), in an uncontrolled analysis.* Intrinsic religious practice was not associated with functional changes. |
Hayward and Krause16
|
Journal of Behavioral Medicine - 2014 - USA |
- Longitudinal. - Quantitative. |
- BADL and IADL: based on 15 items of the BADL and IADL the authors investigated the number and severity of functional limitations - Religiosity: direct question about the performance of any of these positions: deacon, elder, counselor, pastor or minister, committee chair, choirmaster, or Sunday Bible School teacher . |
1,152 American elderly persons living in the community - Representative sample of elderly population of USA (excluding Hawaii and Alaska) |
Elderly men with a religious leadership position had a slower and less aggressive functional decline trajectory than those with no leadership roles (p =0.009) and non-frequenters (p=0.004). |