The paper provides a systematic review and meta-analysis of the full database of mortality studies (index: Standardized mortality ratio; SMR) of priests of four denominations. The study demonstrated a pronounced “Healthy worker effect”: for indexes of total mortality and mortality from all cancers there was a decrease of 14–15% for Catholics, 27–32% for Protestants, 48–50% for Mormons, and 10–18% for Buddhists (few data were available for Buddhists, and the decrease in cancer mortality was not statistically significant). The decrease in mortality relative to the population for Protestant and Mormon priests in past times was greater than at present, in contrast to Catholics. A meta-analysis for the total group of priests of all denominations showed a decrease in mortality by 26% from all cases (SMR = 74; 95% confidence intervals (CI): 67; 81; n = 28) and by 31% from all cancers (SMR = 69; 95% CI: 59; 80; n = 13). The levels of decline are in the range of 18–29% previously obtained in meta-analyses for lay believers [McCullough M.E. et al., 2000; Powell L.H. et al., 2003; Chida Y. et al., 2009]. The value of the Healthy Worker Effect for clergy and for the laity in general was at the levels shown in a number of meta- and pooled-analyses and in individual studies for pilots, athletes, doctors, and military personnel, although no primary and permanent selection for physical indexes, enhanced medical care, etc. for priests and believers, in comparison with the named professions, is available. A review of three studies (1982–2022) showed a “dose relationship”: a direct association was found between the rank of the priesthood and beneficial effects: an increase in life expectancy for the Catholic clergy (population, priests, bishops), a decrease in overall mortality for Jews (from agnostics and traditional to Haredi Jews) and mortality from all cancers for the three ranks of active Mormons. The explanation for the priesthood's beneficial effects is associated with a number of concomitant factors (socio-economic status, less or no bad habits, lifestyle, partly diet, psycho-emotional mood, etc.), but adjustment for such factors, as well as for cancers due to smoking and alcohol, carried out in some studies, did not cancel the decrease in mortality and, thus, these factors are not relevant to fully explanation of the revealed phenomena.
Key words: priesthood, mortality from all causes, mortality from malignant neoplasms, healthy worker effect
DOI: 10.22250/20728662_2023_3_67
About the author
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Aleksei N. Koterov – Doctor of Sciences (Biology), Head of the Laboratory on Radiation Epidemiology Department State Research Center – Burnasyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center of Federal Medical Biological Agency; 46 Zhivopisnaya st., Moscow, 123182, Russia; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |