The incidence of death among low-risk populations: a multi-level analysis

This study utilized a multi-level model to examine the impact of religion as an occupation on mortality. Death certificate data were used to examine clergy mortality and compares them to census categorized professionals, counseling professionals and unmarried clergy. Individuals mortality exist in, and is influenced by the state they resided and died in. Because of this, they are not only examined on the individual level, they are also nested in their respective state of death. A series of hierarchical linear models were estimated in order to determine the effects of the different influence levels (individual and state). Findings suggest that clergy have a significant life advantage over professionals and counseling professionals. Married clergy have significant years of life disadvantage when compared to unmarried clergy. Implications of this research are discussed and considerations for future research are presented.