Attending religious services may aid the body in addition to helping the spirit, according to a new study. Researchers in California have found new evidence that weekly attendance at religious services is linked to a longer, healthier life.

In the study, researchers from the Human Population Laboratories of the Public Health Institute and the California Department of Health Services, and from the University of California, Berkeley, found that people who attended religious services once a week had significantly lower risks of death compared with those who attended less frequently or never, even after adjusting for age, health behaviors and other risk factors. The study will be published April 4 in the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine.