A University of Pittsburgh Medical Center doctor reported today that a study shows attending weekly religious services can improve life expectancy. The findings are published in the March-April issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

The study uses life expectancy tables to compare the impact of regular exercise, statin therapy and religious attendance and shows that each accounts for an additional two to five years of life, according to a UPMC news release.

"This is not to say that religious attendance should replace primary prevention such as exercise, or a proven drug therapy, such as statin therapy, but it does suggest that regular religious attendance is associated with a substantially longer life expectancy, and this warrants further research," said study author Daniel Hall, who is a resident in general surgery at UPMC and an Episcopal priest.

Dr. Hall's analysis shows regular physical exercise to be the most effective, accounting for 3-to-5.1 years of additional life over a lifetime. Although not as effective as regular exercise, both statins and religious attendance also accounted for longer life expectancy, with statins accounting for 2.1-to-3.7 additional years of life and regular religious attendance accounting for 1.8-to-3.1 additional years of life.

A secondary cost analysis suggests that religious attendance may actually be more cost effective than statins. The lifetime monetary cost of each therapy or behavior was calculated using insurance data for the average yearly cost of statins, census data for the average annual household contribution to religious institutions, and the cost of a modest gym membership for exercise. This lifetime cost was then divided by the additional years of life attributable to each behavior. Each year of life gained from statin therapy cost about $10,000 while religious attendance cost $7,000 per year of life gained. Physical exercise was the most cost effective at approximately $4,000 per year of life gained.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.