Report finds church attendance lowers suicide risk

Study also shows Catholic women less likely to take their lives than Protestants

Women who attend religious services, especially Catholic women,
are much less likely to commit suicide. Photo credit.

Women who go to church are apparently five times less likely to commit suicide than those who don't.

That's according to a new study in the U.S. that tracked 89,708 women between 1996 and 2010.

"Attendance at religious services once per week or more was associated with an approximately five-fold lower rate of suicide compared with never attending religious services."

The women in the study were between the ages of 30 and 55 and most were Christian. They reported to researchers how often they went to church: 17,028 went more than once a week, 36,488 went once a week, 14,548 went less than once a week, and 21,644 never did.

The study also found that Catholic women were less likely to commit suicide than their other Christian sisters. Read the report here.