Older Japanese Adults' Religiosity: Relationship with Age; Gender; Physical, Mental, and Cognitive Health; Subjective Feelings about Health; Social Support/Integration; and Health Promotion Behaviors.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of older Japanese adults’ health promotion behaviors by examining relationships between their religiosity and age; gender; physical, mental, and cognitive health status; subjective feelings about health; social support/integration; and health promotion behaviors, including physical activity and alcohol and tobacco use through a cross-sectional secondary analysis of a data set from a study of Japanese elders (Liang et al., 1999). A weighted sample of 1,897 community-dwelling Japanese men and women age 65 and older were divided into three age groups: 65 to 74 years (n = 1,054), 75 to 84 years (n = 721), and 85 years and older (n = 122). ANOVA models identified that the group 75-84 and 85+ had a significantly higher level of religiosity than did the group 65-74. For all the three age groups, women had greater levels of religiosity than did men. Multiple linear regression and logistic regression analyses revealed that religiosity was associated with chronic health problems, depressive symptoms, being employed, satisfaction with health status, greater perception of social support, greater number of children, more physical activity, less memory impairment, being unmarried or widowed, and less tobacco use. Results of the Sobel test also identified that religiosity partially mediated gender effects on chronic diseases, depressive symptoms, marital status, and tobacco use. Religiosity also partially mediated age effects on memory impairment, marital status, and the number of children. Mobility partially mediated religiosity effects on alcohol use and tobacco use, and marital status partially mediated religiosity effects on alcohol use and tobacco use. The path model fit the data well [e.g., χ²=368.309, df = 114, χ²/df = 3.231, RMSEA = .046 (90% CI= .041, .051), PCLOSE = .899, CFI = .916] after removing insignificant paths and performing modification indices. The model explained 21.5% of the variance in physical activity, 17.8% in alcohol use, and 14.0% in tobacco use. Religiosity was positively related to physical activity and negatively related to tobacco use, but was not associated with alcohol use. To more holistically understand Japanese elders’ health promotion behaviors, studies that include additional variables, such as ikigai, are recommended.