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Psychiatric disease incidence among Danish Seventh-day Adventists and Baptists

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology volume 48, pages 1583–1590 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

Previous studies suggest that religious practice can have a positive effect on mental health, but may also have potential for harm. In Denmark, unique possibilities are available for studying the influence of religious practice on mental health: Denmark is characterized as a secular society and it is possible to follow members of religious societies in nationwide registers. In this study, we follow a cohort of Danish Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) and Baptists in a nationwide psychiatry register and compare the incidence in this cohort with the general population.

Methods

We followed a cohort of 5,614 SDA and 3,663 Baptists in the Danish Psychiatric Central Register, which contained information on psychiatric hospitalizations from 1970 to 2009. Psychiatric disease incidence in the cohort was compared with that in the general Danish population as standardized incidence ratios and within-cohort comparisons were made with a Cox model.

Results

The cohort had decreased incidence of abuse disorders compared to the general population. Furthermore, among Baptists, decreased incidence of unipolar disorders among men and decreased incidence of schizophrenia among women were observed. Surprisingly, we observed an increased incidence rate of unipolar disorder among women.

Conclusions

In this nationwide cohort study with 40 years of follow-up, we observed increased incidence rates of unipolar disorders among women and decreased rates of alcohol- and drug-related psychiatric disorders compared to the general Danish population. We have no mechanistic explanation for the increased incidence of unipolar disorders among women, but discuss several hypotheses that could explain this observation.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the “Religion in the 21st Century” program at the University of Copenhagen and a grant from the Danish Cancer Society. The funding organizations had no influence on the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest and have no financial interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Øster Farimagsgade 5 A, 2. floor, 1353, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lau Caspar Thygesen

  2. Unit of Survivorship, The Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lau Caspar Thygesen, Susanne Oksbjerg Dalton & Christoffer Johansen

  3. Research Unit, Department of Palliative Medicine, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lone Ross

  4. Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lars Vedel Kessing

  5. Research Unit of Health, Man and Society, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Niels Christian Hvidt

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  1. Lau Caspar Thygesen
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  2. Susanne Oksbjerg Dalton
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  3. Christoffer Johansen
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  4. Lone Ross
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  5. Lars Vedel Kessing
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Correspondence to Lau Caspar Thygesen.

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Thygesen, L.C., Dalton, S.O., Johansen, C. et al. Psychiatric disease incidence among Danish Seventh-day Adventists and Baptists. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 48, 1583–1590 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-013-0669-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-013-0669-z

Keywords

  • Religion
  • Protestantism
  • Psychiatry
  • Incidence
  • Epidemiology