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True Believers? Religion, Physiology, and Perceived Body Weight in Texas

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Abstract

This paper examines relationships between body weight, religion, and gender while controlling for relevant covariates and body mass index (BMI), a measure of physical/biological body type. Using data from the 2004 Survey of Texas Adults (n = 1,504), we present results of ordered logistic regression models which indicate that religious factors work distinctly for men and women when controlling for BMI. While church attendance is associated with lower odds of overweight perceptions among women, it is religious salience that is associated with lower odds of self-reported excess weight in men. Implications for research which associates religious and physiological factors are discussed.

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Notes

  1. We removed one outlying case with an excessive measure of BMI >80.

  2. The “Other” category for the marital status variable includes, “Widowed,” “Separated,” “Partnered but not married,” and lastly “Married but not living with spouse.”

  3. Comparison of BMI scores for men (M = 27.12, SD = 5.33) and women (M = 26.94, SD = 5.47) revealed slightly higher mean scores for men but no significant differences between the groups (t = 0.66, ns). Interestingly however, women report a stronger sense of self-reported overweightness (M = 1.70, SD = .716) when compared to men (M = 1.45, SD = .795, t = −6.49, p < .001).

  4. We estimated additional models that included a composite three-item index of religiousness that took the mean of religious salience, prayer frequency, and Biblical inerrancy. Factor loadings were generally respectable for the index (females Cronbach’s α = .63; males Cronbach’s α = .71). However, the substitution of individual items with a composite index did not result in statistically significant effects from the addition of a religiosity index and did not alter the effects of either attendance or denominational affiliation (results available upon request). Furthermore, the distinct effects of individual religiosity items for men when compared to women leads us to conclude that our models offer more explanatory power when individual religion items are retained.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Xiaohe Xu, John Bartkowski and Chris Ellison for the helpful comments on an early draft of this paper. Earlier versions were presented at the Department of Sociology Graduate Student Colloquium at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the 2013 Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association in New York City. The data for this study were acquired via The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR, Study Number 4297) and were made available (in part) by the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin and by funding provided by the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service and the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Neither the collector of the data nor any of these entities bears any responsibility for the analyses and interpretations presented here.

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  1. Department of Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University, 211 Oswald Tower, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Andrea L. Ruiz

  2. Department of Sociology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Gabriel A. Acevedo

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  1. Andrea L. Ruiz
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  2. Gabriel A. Acevedo
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Correspondence to Andrea L. Ruiz.

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Ruiz, A.L., Acevedo, G.A. True Believers? Religion, Physiology, and Perceived Body Weight in Texas. J Relig Health 54, 1221–1237 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9859-6

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