The Relationship between Religion, Social Interest, and Wellness in Adults

The primary purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between religion, social interest, and wellness in adults. A stratified random sample was taken of faculty, staff, and students at a university with 125 individuals participating in the study. All participants completed an online survey including the Brief Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness and Spirituality (Fetzer, 1999), Social Interest Index (Greever, Tseng, Friedland, 1973), and Five-Factor Wellness Inventory (Myers & Sweeney, 2005). It was hypothesized that there would be a significant relationship between the components of religion, social interest, and wellness. The mediating role of social interest on the relationship between the components of religion and wellness was explored along with considering mean differences for wellness across religious groups. Finally, mean differences for all three scales were explored for ethnicity, gender, and age. The hypotheses were tested using correlations and multivariate analysis. Components of religion were found to have a significant relationship with wellness, although only the components of Daily Spiritual Experience and Organizational Religiousness had significant relationships with social interest. Social interest and wellness had a positive significant relationship (.544). Social interest also mediated the relationship between Daily Spiritual Experience and Total Wellness. There were no mean differences found for Total Wellness across different religious groups. African American participants had higher mean scores on the components of religion. Women had higher mean scores than men for various components of religion. Older participants were found to have higher mean scores for Total Wellness and Organizational Religiousness. This study is the first to date to examine religion, social interest, and holistic wellness. Future studies are needed to continue to explore the relationships between religion, social interest, and wellness specifically the relationship between religion and social interest. It is important that future research includes samples that are more diverse not only in regards to gender, ethnicity, and age but also in religious groups and denominations

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs in Alzheimer\u27s Disease and Parkinson\u27s Disease: Reconsidering the Role of Neuroinflammation

Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) and Parkinson\u27s disease (PD) are the most common neurodegenerative diseases with age as the greatest risk factor. As the general population experiences extended life span, preparation for the prevention and treatment of these and other age-associated neurological diseases are warranted. Since epidemiological studies suggested that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use decreased risk for AD and PD, increasing attention has been devoted to understanding the costs and benefits of the innate neuroinflammatory response to functional recovery following pathology onset. This review will provide a general overview on the role of neuroinflammation in these neurodegenerative diseases and an update on NSAID treatment in recent experimental animal models, epidemiological analyses, and clinical trials