Abstract
This study explores the relationship between religious service attendance, social ties, and health among former NFL players, a population with relatively high levels of religious attendance who endure physically demanding occupations. Research shows that frequent religious service attenders tend to have better health, partly because of social connections formed through religious involvement. We analyzed a sample of 1029 former NFL players. Consistent with previous research, bivariate and multivariate OLS regression models show that frequent religious attenders have statistically significantly better self-rated health. However, this relationship is moderated by social ties. Respondents who scored lower on the social ties index exhibited a stronger significant relationship between frequent religious attendance and health; those scoring higher on the social ties index exhibited no relationship between frequent attendance and health. Future research should examine how benefits of religious attendance vary depending upon strength of social relationships.
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Data Availability
The NFL Player Care Foundation Study of Retired Players is limited-access and is housed in a secure data enclave at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.
Code Availability
These analyses were conducted using Stata SE, version 16. No custom software or code was used in this research.
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Acknowledgements
Tim Cupery, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University – Fresno, where he teaches courses on Quantitative Methods, Religion, and Sports. He studies cross-national and individual aspects of religion with links to identity and political conflict, health, and sports. Much of his current research examines the health and well-being of former professional athletes.
Funding
This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, 1K01AG05462-01A1. The National Institute on Aging had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or decision to submit the manuscript for publication. The NFL Player Care Foundation provided funding and input to the design and conduct of the original Retired Players Study. It had no role in the design or conduct of the present study.
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All authors contributed to the study. Survey design and data collection were performed by David Weir, Keith Whitfield, and James Jackson. Data analysis was performed by Tim Cupery. Conceptualization, feedback on analysis, writing, and draft preparation were performed by TC, EB, RWT, AS, TR, and KV.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of HELSINKI and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants involved in the study. The study was approved by the University of Michigan IRB.
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Cupery, T., Bush, E., Turner, R.W. et al. Positive Effects of Religion and Social Ties on the Health of Former NFL Athletes. J Relig Health 62, 1324–1342 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01338-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01338-y