LSU associate professor of sociology Troy C. Blanchard recently found that a community's religious environment - that is, the type of religious congregations within a locale - affects mortality rates, often in a positive manner. These results were published in the June issue of Social Forces, a leading journal in the field of sociology. "Although there is a great deal of research on religion and health, previous studies have tended to focus on the individual aspects of religion, such as how often an individual prays or attends worship services," said Blanchard. Along with co-author John Bartkowski from the University of Texas at San Antonio and other researchers from the University of West Georgia and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Blanchard found that people live longer in areas with a large number of Catholic and...
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