Women who regularly attend religious services are five times less likely to commit suicide in comparison to those who never attend services, researchers have found.
A study published Wednesday by JAMA Psychiatry found that among more than 89,000 women, "attendance at religious services once per week or more was associated with an approximately 5-fold lower rate of suicide compared with never attending services".
Researchers concluded that "frequent religious service attendance was associated with a significantly lower rate of suicide."
The women, most of whom were white Christians, were studied over a period of 15 years between 1996 and 2010.
During that time, 36 committed suicide, which is among the 10 leading causes of death in the US.
"Our results do not imply that health care providers should prescribe attendance at religious services. However, for patients who are already religious, service attendance might be encouraged as a form of meaningful social participation," researchers concluded.
"Religion and spirituality may be an underappreciated resource that psychiatrists and clinicians could explore with their patients, as appropriate."
The study pointed to the fact that major world religions traditionally teach against suicide. "Religious reasons sometimes given for prohibitions against suicide include the following: life being a gift from God, suicide being against the natural order, suicide causing injury to the community, suicide encouraging others to follow a similar course, and death being this life's greatest evil," researchers said.
They also found that Catholic women were less likely to commit suicide than Protestant women, a trend that was particularly strong among those who were devout.
Of the almost 7,000 Catholic women who said they attended mass more than once a week, there were no suicides.
