Some Links on Faith and Health

Last updated 7 August 2000. An appendix to The Star Course.

There is a great deal of evidence of postive links between faith and mental and physical health. I have been stimulated to add to this by the relevant chapters in Patrick Glynn's masterly God - the Evidence.

The BBC story on the Health Education Authority report on faith and mental health is here.

And their story about how churchgoing prolongs life expectancy is here.

Other Faith and Health links that I have found (and there are lots more, try google, altavista, northenlight).

• a rather sceptical Lancet Article (February 20, 99 - Religion Spirituality and Medicine) questions the studies because they have not controlled adequately for co-factors. But of course the fact that religious belief reduces "stricter adherence to codes of conduct that proscribe behaviors associated with risk" is hardly a reason for dismissing their positive health effects! In fact this article is torn to shreds in the following one, and shown to be a very shoddy piece of work.
• Religion, Spirituality, and Medicine: A Rebuttal To Skeptics gives a substantial rebuttal to this, published in the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine. This gives 20 references - I am adding web traces of those I can find:
  • Koenig HG, McCullough M, Larson DB. Religion and health: A century of research reviewed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, (coming out Nov 2000).
  • Schoenbach VJ, Kaplan BH, Fredman L, Kleinbaum DG. Social ties and mortality in Evans County, Georgia. American Journal of Epidemiology 1986; 123:577-591 (there's an abstract here but you have to search down for it). The journal is on the web but not back issues that far.
  • Seeman TE, Kaplan GA, Knudsen L, Cohen R, Guralnik J. Social network ties and mortality among the elderly in the Alameda County Study. American Journal of Epidemiology 1987; 126:714-723.
  • Bryant S, Rakowski W. Predictors of mortality among elderly African Americans. Research on Aging 1992; 14:50-67.
  • Goldman N, Korenman S, Weinstein R. Marital status and health among the elderly. Social Science and Medicine 1995; 40:1717-1730.
  • Oman D, Reed D. Religion and mortality among the community-dwelling elderly. American Journal of Public Health 1998;88: 1469-1475.
  • Hummer R, Rogers R, Nam C, Ellison CG. Religious attendance and mortality in the U.S. adult population. Demography 1999. (this is the journal of the Population Association of America but it is only available online if you subscribe to the right services)
  • Koenig HG, Hays JC, Larson DB, George LK, Cohen HJ, McCullough M, Meador K, Blazer DG. Does religious attendance prolong survival?: A six-year follow-up study of 3,968 older adults. Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences 1999; 54A: M370-M377.
  • Musick MA, House JS, Williams DR. Attendance at religious services and mortality in a national sample. Paper presented at the 1999 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, Illinois, August 6.(a USA Today report is here - I understand from the author that the paper is still being reviewed for publication).
  • Koenig HG, Larson DB, Hays JC, McCullough ME, George LK, Branch PS, Meador KG. Kuchibhatla M. Religion and survival of 1010 male veterans hospitalized with medical illness. Journal of Religion and Health 1998; 37:15-29 (but I can't find this article on the web).
  • Idler EL, Kasl, SV. Religion among disabled and nondisabled elderly persons, II: Attendance at religious services as a predictor of the course of disability. Journal of Gerontology 1997; 52B:s306-s316.
  • Strawbridge WJ, Cohen RD, Shema SJ, Kaplan GA. Frequent attendance at religious services and morality over 28 years. American Journal of Public Health 1997; 87: 957-961 (abstract here).
  • Friedlander Y. Kark JD, Stein Y. Religious orthodoxy and myocardial infarction in Jerusalem: A case-control study. International Journal of Cardiology 1986; 10:33-41.
  • Goldbourt U, Yaari S, Medalie JH. Factors predictive of long-term coronary heart disease mortality among 10,059 male Israeli civil servants and municipal employees. Cardiology 1993; 82:100-121.
  • Kark JD, Shemi G, Friedlander Y, Martin O, Manor O, Blondheim SH. Does religious observance promote health? Mortality in secular vs. religious kibbutzim in Israel. American Journal of Public Health 1996;86:341-346.
  • House JS, Robbins C, Metzner H. The association of social relationships and activities with mortality: Prospective evidence from the Tecumseh community health study. American Journal of Epidemiology 1982; 116;123-140.
  • Byrd RC. Positive therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer in a coronary care unit population. Southern Medical Journal 1988;81:826-829.
  • Idler EL, Kasl, SV. Religion disability, depression, and the timing of death. American Journal of Sociology 1992;97:1052-1079.
  • Oxman TE, Freeman DH, Manheimer ED. Lack of social participation or religious strength and comfort as risk factors for death after cardiac surgery in the elderly. Psychosomatic Medicine 1995; 57:5-15.
• There is an interesting fact sheet here with some other references.