Going to church could help women live longer, according to experts.
A team of researchers made the discovery after analysing data charting the lives of 74,534 female nurses in the US over a 16 years period.
The team found that regular churchgoers were 33 per cent less likely to die over that period than those who did not attend.
Regular attendance was also linked with fewer deaths from heart disease and cancer. Even attending occassionally appeared to improve survival rates.
The team, which included Professor Tyler VanderWeele, professor of epidemiology at the TH Chan School of Public Health at Harvard, said it believed that being part of a congregation discouraged bad habits, such as smoking, and increased optimism.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, was undertaken by the nurses between 1996 and 2012, with results suggesting churchgoers were 27 per cent less likely to die of cardiovascular disease and had a 21 per cent lower risk of dying from cancer.
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