Religious attendance and functional mobility among older Mexican americans

Background: Numerous studies of predominantly non-Hispanic white populations show that religious involvement favors health and longevity in later life. This report tests whether these general patterns extend to the functional mobility trajectories of older Mexican Americans. Methods: Our analyses employ seven waves of data collected from the original cohort of the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (H-EPESE, 1993-2010), a probability sample of 3050 Mexican Americans aged 65 and older who reside in Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. Religious involvement is assessed with a standard measure of religious attendance. Functional mobility is assessed with the performance-oriented mobility assessment (POMA). We used the growth mixture modeling (GMM) application in Mplus to estimate classes of POMA trajectories across the seven waves of data. We then estimated a series of multinomial logistic regression models to predict the odds of membership in the POMA trajectory classes. Results: Our key finding is that regular religious attendance is associated with more favorable functional mobility trajectories. These results persisted with controls for baseline assessments of the POMA, depression, cognitive functioning, chronic conditions, drinking, smoking, obesity, social support, and a range of relevant background factors. Conclusion: Regular religious involvement may slow the rate of functional decline among older Mexican Americans. Additional research is needed to explain this pattern.