National Bureau of Economic Research working-paper graph shows underlying cultural trends that preceded the opioid edpidemic |
To study the relationship between deaths of despair and religious
participation, "The authors tried to isolate the impact of religion by
studying blue laws, which banned commerce on Sundays to encourage
churchgoing," The Economist reports. "Whenever a state repealed a blue
law, religious attendance tended to plummet, creating a natural
experiment. And sure enough, deaths of despair rose unusually quickly in
the few years following these repeals. Although legalizing alcohol
sales on Sundays may account for some of this trend, the biggest
increase in mortality came from suicides."
A Google search of "Why go to church if I can pray at home?" yields pages of responses. And yet, this study "strikingly found that private prayer was not linked to lower deaths of despair," The Economist notes. "This suggests that the risk reduction stems not from belief, but rather from the interpersonal connections that organized religion provides. Although secular groups like charities or labor unions also produce such 'social capital,' the JAMA authors say that faith-based networks provide unusually potent protection."
The phrase "death of despair" comes from a 2015 milestone paper published by Anne Case and Angus Deaton that analyzed death rates in America and found deaths of despair to be disproportionately rural. "The economists found that mortality had been rising among middle-aged whites, thanks to a surge in drug overdoses, alcohol-related illness, and suicides—causes they deemed 'deaths of despair,'" reports The Economist. Since 2015, academics have sought tease out the root cause of these deaths -- are they caused by mental anguish or opioid abuse -- the answer is yet to come.
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