Religiosity and Church-Based Assistance Among Chronically Ill African-American and White Elderly

ABSTRACT This study examines religion and church-based assistance among 127 chronically ill African-American and white elderly persons hospitalized for congestive heart failure and discharged to home. Elders reported high levels of religiosity and prayer behavior; they reported low levels of church help received. Controlling for living arrangement, gender, social class and health in probit regression analyses, race was not a significant predictor of subjective religiosity, frequency of prayer, or level of church help received. Findings indicated a significant race-by-health interaction. Subjective religiosity was positively associated with health for whites but no relationship was found between religiosity and health for African-Americans. Further research is called for that replicates study findings on other elders with chronic illness.