A new study suggested synagogue attendance may improve your health. The study, conducted by Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, examined four large Jewish communities in the US.

The study was based on surveys conducted since the year 2000 in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago. Respondents were asked for their religious affiliation (secular, Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, or Orthodox) and rate of synagogue attendance (four options from never to at least once a week). They were also asked to rate their own state of health.

The study found that “adults who affiliate with a Jewish religious denomination and attend synagogue report significantly better health than secular or non-practicing Jews,” Jeff Levin, director of the institute’s Program on Religion and Population Health, said in a statement issued by the university.

Levin, who also conducted the study, is a professor of epidemiology and population health. “People with a strong sense of religious identity and who participate in their faith seem to do better, on average, than people without an active spiritual life,” he added.

The link between religion and health has been pointed out before, but “while there have been hundreds of studies of physical and mental health among Christians and members of other faiths, Jewish studies have been limited mostly to Israelis and to smaller clinical samples in the US or the United Kingdom,” Levin said.

The results of the surveys were consistent across the levels of religious observance: those who reported attending synagogue also reported feeling healthier than those who did not attend.

Levin suggested a national survey of health among the Jewish population as a follow-up. “This would provide an opportunity to dig a lot deeper than what’s possible using data from existing community surveys, which weren’t really designed to assess health,” he said. “It’s fortunate that a question or two on health was included in these surveys, but we can do a lot better.”