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Religiosity and obesity: are overweight people more religious?
Personality and Individual Dierences 28 (2000) 1119±1123
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Religiosity and obesity: are overweight people more religious? Lee Ellis*, David Biglione Minot State University, Department of Sociology, Minot, ND 58707, USA Received 23 March 1999; accepted 25 June 1999
Abstract The present study was undertaken to test the recently advanced hypothesis that highly religious people are more prone to obesity than is true for people in general. Based on a sample of over 6000 middle- to older-aged women, the study found essentially no support for the hypothesis. The only possible exception was in the case of members of certain denominations with historically high birth rates. 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Religiosity; Obesity
1. Introduction According to Proverbs 23:20±21, one should ``Be not among winebibers, or among gluttonous eaters of meat; for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty. . .''. Despite frequent Judeo-Christian admonitions against drunkenness, one less often hears religious leaders condemning those who over-eat. Ferrero (1998) proposed that gluttony is rarely denounced by religious spokesmen because such behavior is in fact more prevalent among highly religious people than among persons who are less religious. Consistent with this proposal, Ferrero (1998) correlated self-ratings of religiosity and body weight, and found a signi®cant positive correlation. However, a study of teenagers found that religiosity (especially church attendance) was * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Ellis). 0191-8869/00/$ - see front matter 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 9 1 - 8 8 6 9 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 6 1 - 0
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positively associated with exercising regularly and eating what many consider a well-balanced diet (i.e., eating breakfast regularly and eating plenty of fruit and vegetables; Wallace & Forman, 1998). This study would suggest that, if anything, religiosity would be inversely associated with body weight. We decided to explore this hypothesis further using data from a large sample of middle- to older-aged women.
2. Methods As part of a larger study, 6649 United States and Canadian mothers of college students were surveyed between 1988 and 1997 regarding a wide variety of behavioral and health issues, including issues having to do with religiosity. While this is not directly relevant to the present report, the sample of mothers was obtained in the following two-step process: First, approximately 12,000 college students at 27 US and three Canadian universities were asked to complete a questionnaire. Then, all of the students (except those who were adopted and whose mothers were no longer living) were asked to send a companion questionnaire to their mothers to complete. The present analysis is based on the 6649 returned mothers' questionnaires. The women who completed the mothers' questionnaire ranged in age from 35 to 86, with a mean age of 48. Their average years of education was 13.67. Tendencies toward obesity were assessed by calculating the Body Mass Index (BMI, also called the Quetelet Index) for each subject. The BMI involves converting weight and height to metric measures, and then dividing each subject's weight by the square of his/her height (Lehingue, Remontet, Monoz & Mamelle, 1998). To check the validity of the BMI, we correlated the BMI scores against reports of any symptoms of diabetes, anorexia, and bulimia. Mothers rated their symptoms for these diseases on a scale of 0 to 9. The presumption underlying this validity check was that a valid BMI score should correlate positively with symptoms of diabetes and should correlate negatively with symptoms of either anorexia and bulimia. As predicted, a signi®cant positive correlation was found between the BMI and diabetes symptoms (r = 0.23, p < 0.01) and a signi®cant negative correlation was found between the BMI and symptoms of bulimia (r=ÿ0.29, p < 0.01). However, contrary to expectations, a nonsigni®cant correlation (r=ÿ0.02) was found between the BMI and anorexia. In pursuing this unexpected ®nding, we found that only a small number of women (n = 35) reported having any anorexia symptoms, and that most of these symptoms were of a minor nature when the women were younger. This means that relatively little overall variability existed in the anorexia variable, making it unreliable for assessing the validity of the BMI. Despite this one unanticipated ®nding, we conclude that the BMI index was a fairly valid measure of obesity tendencies. In addition to reporting their weights at the time they completed the questionnaire, the women reported their weights at three dierent periods surrounding the time they were pregnant with the ospring who completed the student questionnaire (which is not part of the present study). These additional body weight measures allowed us to calculate a total of four BMIs, each of which we correlated with the mother's self-reported religiosity.
L. Ellis, D. Biglione / Personality and Individual Dierences 28 (2000) 1119±1123
1121
To measure religiosity, six measures were utilized. Two questions focused on the recent past. They were: How important has religion been to your daily life? and Please estimate the total number of church services you attended in the past 12 months. The other three questions had to do with the mothers' self-assessed religiosity at the time they were pregnant. These three questions were: During the reference period, how important was religion to your daily life? During your pregnancy and for the ®rst 3 months afterward, please estimate the total number of church services you attended. During the reference period, how often did you pray for a healthy child? Finally, we asked the women to report their religious denominational preference. 3. Results The main results of our study are shown in Table 1. It reveals that all four BMI measures Table 1 The correlations between BMI (both at the time the questionnaire was completed and around the time of pregnancy) and various religiosity measuresa BMI measures
BMI 1. Current 2. First month of pregnancy 3. At the time of delivery 4. Three months after delivery Religiosity 5. Importance of religion, current 6. Importance of religion, during pregnancy 7. Church attendance, current 8. Church attendance, during pregnancy 9. Pray for healthy child
Religiosity measures
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
±
0.99 ±
0.99 0.99 ±
0.99 0.98 0.99 ±
ÿ0.01 ÿ0.02 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01
ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01
ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01
ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01
0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02
0.81 ±
0.43 0.81 ±
0.37 0.45 0.50 ±
0.53 0.60 0.21 0.25 ±
±
a Due to the large sample size, all correlation coecients above 0.03 are signi®cant beyond the 0.05 level, and coef®cients higher than 0.05 are signi®cant beyond the 0.01 level.
1122
L. Ellis, D. Biglione / Personality and Individual Dierences 28 (2000) 1119±1123
were exceedingly closely correlated with one another, and that all ®ve of the nondenominational religiosity measures were at least fairly strongly correlated with one another. Regarding the hypothesized correlation between tendencies toward obesity and religiosity, the evidence is non-supportive. As the reader can see, none of the correlations suggest a signi®cant correlation exists between obesity tendencies and religiosity. Regarding denominational aliation, we restricted our analysis to religions to which at least 50 of the mothers claimed members, and compared the BMI means for these religions to the overall means for the entire sample (24.95, SD=1.28). As the reader can see by viewing Table 2, the highest mean BMI was for Mormons (28.24) and Catholics (26.96), and the lowest was for Jews (23.56) and for mothers with no religious aliation (23.74). These averages suggest that mothers belonging to religions with traditionally high fertility rates may have a slight, but signi®cant, tendency toward obesity. 4. Conclusion Overall, our study failed to support Ferrero's (1998) ®nding that obesity is positively associated with being religious. Instead, our study suggests that there is no signi®cant relationship between these two variables. The only substantive quali®cation to this generalization has to do with the slight tendency for members of certain religious denominations (e.g. Mormons and Catholics) to be more over-weight than members of other denominations (e.g. Jews) and those who do not aliate with any religion. A major limitation of the present study is that the sample, while large, was con®ned to middle- and older-aged women in North America who have had at least one child. Another limitation has to do with our measure of obesity. While the body mass index is the single most Table 2 Average body mass by denomination Religious denomination
Number of subjects
Mean Body Mass Index
Baptist Catholic Christian Church of Christ Congregational Episcopalian Jewish Lutheran Methodist Mormon Presbyterian Protestant (non-speci®c) None All other TOTAL
400 2002 120 230 96 123 123 1008 463 74 205 118 160 1527 6649
25.24 26.96 24.97 25.15 24.68 23.89 23.56 25.24 24.58 28.24 24.71 24.55 23.74 24.63 24.95
L. Ellis, D. Biglione / Personality and Individual Dierences 28 (2000) 1119±1123
1123
widely used measure (and the one employed in Ferrero's study), a more precise measure is one based on actual physiological measurement (Roubeno, Dallal & Wilson, 1995). Despite our failure to con®rm Ferrero's report of a positive relationship between religiosity and tendencies toward obesity, our ®ndings are still perplexing in light of Judeo±Christian opposition to gluttony (Lyman, 1989). One would think that such opposition would prevent obesity among those who are most religious, especially in light of some evidence that they exercise more often (Wallace & Forman, 1998), and a great deal of evidence that they are healthier (reviewed by Levin, 1994) than less religious people. References Ferrero, K. F. (1998). Firm believers? Religion, body weight, and well-being. Review of Religious Research, 39, 224± 244. Lehingue, Y., Remontet, L., Monoz, F., & Mamelle, N. (1998). Birth ponderal index and body mass index reference curves in a large population. American Journal of Human Biology, 10, 327±340. Levin, J. S. (1994). Religion and health: Is there an association, is it valid, and is it causal? Social Science and Medicine, 38, 1475±1482. Lyman, S. M. (1989). The seven deadly sins: Society and evil. New York: General Hall. Roubeno, R., Dallal, G. E., & Wilson, P. W. (1995). Predicting body fatness: The body mass index vs. estimation by bioelectrical impedance. American Journal of Public Health, 85, 726±728. Wallace Jr, J. M., & Forman, T. A. (1998). Religion's role in promoting health and reducing risk among American youth. Health Education and Behavior, 25, 721±741.
www.elsevier.com/locate/paid
Religiosity and obesity: are overweight people more religious? Lee Ellis*, David Biglione Minot State University, Department of Sociology, Minot, ND 58707, USA Received 23 March 1999; accepted 25 June 1999
Abstract The present study was undertaken to test the recently advanced hypothesis that highly religious people are more prone to obesity than is true for people in general. Based on a sample of over 6000 middle- to older-aged women, the study found essentially no support for the hypothesis. The only possible exception was in the case of members of certain denominations with historically high birth rates. 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Religiosity; Obesity
1. Introduction According to Proverbs 23:20±21, one should ``Be not among winebibers, or among gluttonous eaters of meat; for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty. . .''. Despite frequent Judeo-Christian admonitions against drunkenness, one less often hears religious leaders condemning those who over-eat. Ferrero (1998) proposed that gluttony is rarely denounced by religious spokesmen because such behavior is in fact more prevalent among highly religious people than among persons who are less religious. Consistent with this proposal, Ferrero (1998) correlated self-ratings of religiosity and body weight, and found a signi®cant positive correlation. However, a study of teenagers found that religiosity (especially church attendance) was * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Ellis). 0191-8869/00/$ - see front matter 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 9 1 - 8 8 6 9 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 6 1 - 0
1120
L. Ellis, D. Biglione / Personality and Individual Dierences 28 (2000) 1119±1123
positively associated with exercising regularly and eating what many consider a well-balanced diet (i.e., eating breakfast regularly and eating plenty of fruit and vegetables; Wallace & Forman, 1998). This study would suggest that, if anything, religiosity would be inversely associated with body weight. We decided to explore this hypothesis further using data from a large sample of middle- to older-aged women.
2. Methods As part of a larger study, 6649 United States and Canadian mothers of college students were surveyed between 1988 and 1997 regarding a wide variety of behavioral and health issues, including issues having to do with religiosity. While this is not directly relevant to the present report, the sample of mothers was obtained in the following two-step process: First, approximately 12,000 college students at 27 US and three Canadian universities were asked to complete a questionnaire. Then, all of the students (except those who were adopted and whose mothers were no longer living) were asked to send a companion questionnaire to their mothers to complete. The present analysis is based on the 6649 returned mothers' questionnaires. The women who completed the mothers' questionnaire ranged in age from 35 to 86, with a mean age of 48. Their average years of education was 13.67. Tendencies toward obesity were assessed by calculating the Body Mass Index (BMI, also called the Quetelet Index) for each subject. The BMI involves converting weight and height to metric measures, and then dividing each subject's weight by the square of his/her height (Lehingue, Remontet, Monoz & Mamelle, 1998). To check the validity of the BMI, we correlated the BMI scores against reports of any symptoms of diabetes, anorexia, and bulimia. Mothers rated their symptoms for these diseases on a scale of 0 to 9. The presumption underlying this validity check was that a valid BMI score should correlate positively with symptoms of diabetes and should correlate negatively with symptoms of either anorexia and bulimia. As predicted, a signi®cant positive correlation was found between the BMI and diabetes symptoms (r = 0.23, p < 0.01) and a signi®cant negative correlation was found between the BMI and symptoms of bulimia (r=ÿ0.29, p < 0.01). However, contrary to expectations, a nonsigni®cant correlation (r=ÿ0.02) was found between the BMI and anorexia. In pursuing this unexpected ®nding, we found that only a small number of women (n = 35) reported having any anorexia symptoms, and that most of these symptoms were of a minor nature when the women were younger. This means that relatively little overall variability existed in the anorexia variable, making it unreliable for assessing the validity of the BMI. Despite this one unanticipated ®nding, we conclude that the BMI index was a fairly valid measure of obesity tendencies. In addition to reporting their weights at the time they completed the questionnaire, the women reported their weights at three dierent periods surrounding the time they were pregnant with the ospring who completed the student questionnaire (which is not part of the present study). These additional body weight measures allowed us to calculate a total of four BMIs, each of which we correlated with the mother's self-reported religiosity.
L. Ellis, D. Biglione / Personality and Individual Dierences 28 (2000) 1119±1123
1121
To measure religiosity, six measures were utilized. Two questions focused on the recent past. They were: How important has religion been to your daily life? and Please estimate the total number of church services you attended in the past 12 months. The other three questions had to do with the mothers' self-assessed religiosity at the time they were pregnant. These three questions were: During the reference period, how important was religion to your daily life? During your pregnancy and for the ®rst 3 months afterward, please estimate the total number of church services you attended. During the reference period, how often did you pray for a healthy child? Finally, we asked the women to report their religious denominational preference. 3. Results The main results of our study are shown in Table 1. It reveals that all four BMI measures Table 1 The correlations between BMI (both at the time the questionnaire was completed and around the time of pregnancy) and various religiosity measuresa BMI measures
BMI 1. Current 2. First month of pregnancy 3. At the time of delivery 4. Three months after delivery Religiosity 5. Importance of religion, current 6. Importance of religion, during pregnancy 7. Church attendance, current 8. Church attendance, during pregnancy 9. Pray for healthy child
Religiosity measures
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
±
0.99 ±
0.99 0.99 ±
0.99 0.98 0.99 ±
ÿ0.01 ÿ0.02 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01
ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01
ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01
ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.01
0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02
0.81 ±
0.43 0.81 ±
0.37 0.45 0.50 ±
0.53 0.60 0.21 0.25 ±
±
a Due to the large sample size, all correlation coecients above 0.03 are signi®cant beyond the 0.05 level, and coef®cients higher than 0.05 are signi®cant beyond the 0.01 level.
1122
L. Ellis, D. Biglione / Personality and Individual Dierences 28 (2000) 1119±1123
were exceedingly closely correlated with one another, and that all ®ve of the nondenominational religiosity measures were at least fairly strongly correlated with one another. Regarding the hypothesized correlation between tendencies toward obesity and religiosity, the evidence is non-supportive. As the reader can see, none of the correlations suggest a signi®cant correlation exists between obesity tendencies and religiosity. Regarding denominational aliation, we restricted our analysis to religions to which at least 50 of the mothers claimed members, and compared the BMI means for these religions to the overall means for the entire sample (24.95, SD=1.28). As the reader can see by viewing Table 2, the highest mean BMI was for Mormons (28.24) and Catholics (26.96), and the lowest was for Jews (23.56) and for mothers with no religious aliation (23.74). These averages suggest that mothers belonging to religions with traditionally high fertility rates may have a slight, but signi®cant, tendency toward obesity. 4. Conclusion Overall, our study failed to support Ferrero's (1998) ®nding that obesity is positively associated with being religious. Instead, our study suggests that there is no signi®cant relationship between these two variables. The only substantive quali®cation to this generalization has to do with the slight tendency for members of certain religious denominations (e.g. Mormons and Catholics) to be more over-weight than members of other denominations (e.g. Jews) and those who do not aliate with any religion. A major limitation of the present study is that the sample, while large, was con®ned to middle- and older-aged women in North America who have had at least one child. Another limitation has to do with our measure of obesity. While the body mass index is the single most Table 2 Average body mass by denomination Religious denomination
Number of subjects
Mean Body Mass Index
Baptist Catholic Christian Church of Christ Congregational Episcopalian Jewish Lutheran Methodist Mormon Presbyterian Protestant (non-speci®c) None All other TOTAL
400 2002 120 230 96 123 123 1008 463 74 205 118 160 1527 6649
25.24 26.96 24.97 25.15 24.68 23.89 23.56 25.24 24.58 28.24 24.71 24.55 23.74 24.63 24.95
L. Ellis, D. Biglione / Personality and Individual Dierences 28 (2000) 1119±1123
1123
widely used measure (and the one employed in Ferrero's study), a more precise measure is one based on actual physiological measurement (Roubeno, Dallal & Wilson, 1995). Despite our failure to con®rm Ferrero's report of a positive relationship between religiosity and tendencies toward obesity, our ®ndings are still perplexing in light of Judeo±Christian opposition to gluttony (Lyman, 1989). One would think that such opposition would prevent obesity among those who are most religious, especially in light of some evidence that they exercise more often (Wallace & Forman, 1998), and a great deal of evidence that they are healthier (reviewed by Levin, 1994) than less religious people. References Ferrero, K. F. (1998). Firm believers? Religion, body weight, and well-being. Review of Religious Research, 39, 224± 244. Lehingue, Y., Remontet, L., Monoz, F., & Mamelle, N. (1998). Birth ponderal index and body mass index reference curves in a large population. American Journal of Human Biology, 10, 327±340. Levin, J. S. (1994). Religion and health: Is there an association, is it valid, and is it causal? Social Science and Medicine, 38, 1475±1482. Lyman, S. M. (1989). The seven deadly sins: Society and evil. New York: General Hall. Roubeno, R., Dallal, G. E., & Wilson, P. W. (1995). Predicting body fatness: The body mass index vs. estimation by bioelectrical impedance. American Journal of Public Health, 85, 726±728. Wallace Jr, J. M., & Forman, T. A. (1998). Religion's role in promoting health and reducing risk among American youth. Health Education and Behavior, 25, 721±741.