Becoming a Believer in Old Age or in Poor Health: What Estonian Census Data Reveal

Religion, or spirituality, is often mentioned by people of advanced ages as an important source of emotional support in their lives. However, it is not entirely clear whether being religious helps individuals live longer, or whether its positive impact becomes more pronounced with age and with deteriorating health. The positive effects of religion on health have been extensively studied, but our research took a different approach, focusing on the impact of health and aging on a person's religiosity. We compared data from voluntary responses to questions on religiosity in two successive censuses collected by the government agency Statistics Estonia to identify people who became believers between these censuses. Our goal was to determine whether being declining health and increasing age are related to being and becoming religious. Our study covered the Estonian population, who were alienated from religious traditions during the Soviet Union's occupation between 1940 and 1991, and now is among the world's most secular societies. In this study, we used descriptive analysis and a logistic regression method. We found that the probability both being religious and becoming a religious person increased with a higher age. Among birth cohorts, the most striking difference emerged between those born before and after World War II, with older generations being largely more religious than younger ones. Poor health was associated with being or becoming a believer at any age and applied for both men and women. Regardless of age, the retirement status of people also seemed to positively influence their conversion to religion. The study confirmed that increasing age, especially reaching retirement age, was linked with becoming a believer while people with poor health were more likely to be or become religious than those without significant health problems.