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INTRODUCTION
Depression is common and disabling (Murray & Lopez, 1996 ; USDHHS, 1999 ). Late-life depression and depressive symptoms are associated with functional decline, family stress, heightened risk of medical illness, less complete recovery from illness, and premature death from suicide or other causes (Unutzer et al. 2000 ; Blazer et al. 2001 ; Charney et al. 2003 ). In light of the prevalence of depression and its associated public health burden in older adults, it is exceedingly important to determine risk factors that are associated with both the presence and severity of late-life depressive symptoms and syndromes.
Research has established several risk factors for depression in adults and older adults, including genetic and endocrine factors (National Institute of Mental Health Genetics Workgroup, 1998 ; Blazer, 2003 ), personality traits (Jorm et al. 2000 ), conflicted relationships, and low levels of social support (Barnett & Gotlib, 1998 ; Blazer, 2003 ), and stressful life events (Monroe & Simons, 1991 ). Evidence is also accumulating to indicate that religious involvement may be associated with the occurrence or severity of depression (Koenig et al. 2001 ; Smith et al. 2003 ), although there are inconsistencies regarding the nature of the associations between specific types of religiosity and depressive symptoms (Koenig et al. 1997a ; Schnittker, 2001 ; Baetz et al. 2004 ).
One challenge in evaluating the literature on religion and depression is the wide variety of measures used to assess 'religiousness'. Research conducted with adults and older adults indicates the importance of capturing at least three distinct components: A public 'organizational' component, that is, frequency of attending worship services; a private 'non-organizational' component, that is, frequency of prayer or other private religious activities; and a measure of 'intrinsic religiosity', that is, the salience or perceived importance of religion to the individual (Allport & Ross, 1967 ; Hoge, 1972 ; Ainlay & Smith, 1984 ; Koenig et al. 1997a ; Baetz et al. 2004 ).
Koenig et al. (1997a ) used measures of organizational and non-organizational religious activity to evaluate the cross-sectional relationships between religion, social support, physical health and depression. Investigating a large racially diverse random sample of community-dwelling American elders from the southeastern USA, and...