面對人口老化的趨勢與挑戰，國內外調查與研究皆發現：宗教為老人主要社會參與活動，且參與宗教活動對老人生理、心理、及社會層面皆有貢獻。目前雖許多研究皆支持宗教活動對老人具正向功能，但其功能仍受許多因素影響，宗教信仰虔誠度即為其中之一，但我們對其中機制所知有限。本研究使用「台灣社會變遷基本調查」計畫第四期第五次宗教組的資料，選取資料庫中65歲以上的老人為研究對象，以達探討台灣老人主客觀宗教信仰虔誠度對其自覺身心健康的影響之研究目的。藉SPSS電腦統計套裝軟體17.0版分析後發現：(1)242位有宗教信仰的老人中，約60%認為自己是虔誠的宗教信徒，但整體而言，受試老人的客觀宗教信仰虔誠度偏低；(2)相對於主觀信仰虔誠度的無影響力，客觀宗教信仰虔誠度與老人本身的社經特徵皆與老人自覺身心健康有顯著相關，且後者的解釋力大於前者，而社經特徵中以教育程度及性別最具影響；(3)相對於非組織性宗教活動，台灣老人較常參與組織性宗教活動，且男性、年齡越大、及教育程度越高的老人，參與此類宗教活動的頻率較低；(4)台灣傳統文化與宗教信仰的多元性導致老人對宗教信仰的認定及參與宗教活動的類型與西方老人不盡相同，於樣本及測量指標選取上應多加考量。

Facing the challenges of aging population, research conducted in Taiwan and other countries all has found that religion is the primary social participation at late adulthood which benefits older adults’ physical, psychological, and social well-being. Although findings of many studies have shown that functions of religions will be affected by many factors, including religiosity, we do not know too much about the mechanism. This study used the database of the “Taiwan Social Change Survey” collected in 2004 which focused on religion investigation in Taiwan to understand the impact of religiosity on perceived physical and psychological health of older adults. The findings showed that (1)Among 242 older adults who were affiliated to any religions, about 60% subjectively considered themselves religious, but the average score of objective religiosity for the whole older participants was low; (2) It was subjective not objective religiosity relevant to perceived physical and psychological health of older adults. Besides objective religiosity, the socio-economic characteristics of older adults also significantly correlated to their perceived physical and psychological health, especially in educational attainments and gender aspects; (3) Older adults tended to participate more often in organizational religion activities than in non-organizational religion activities; (4) Differences on both cultures and diversities of religions between Taiwan and the West cause different effects of measures/indicators and results of religion-related research.

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