Religion and health

[Guest guest]

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

Text PAMHO:11178629 (258 lines) [M1]

Ajita Krishna (das) (Copenhagen - DK)

25-Feb-06 11:07 (12:07 +0100)

Defeating Atheism

Religion and health

---------------------------

Pamho, agtSP!

 

Here's som interesting stuff. (For a more readable version see:

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/religionhealth.html

 

-------------------------

Scientific Studies that Show a Positive Effect of Religion on Health

 

The following are a short list of some recent studies that have shown the

positive influence of religion on health.

 

Krucoff, M. W., S. W. Crater, C. L. Green, A. C. Maas, J. E. Seskevich, J.

D. Lane, K. A. Loeffler, K. Morris, T. M. Bashore, and H. G. Koenig. 2001.

 

Integrative noetic therapies as adjuncts to percutaneous intervention during

unstable coronary syndromes: Monitoring and Actualization of Noetic Training

(MANTRA) feasibility pilot. Am. Heart J. 142: 760-767.

 

A pilot study8 (limited to150 patients) examining the efficacy of noetic

(non-pharmacological) therapies (stress relaxation, imagery, touch therapy,

and prayer) found that "Of all noetic therapies, off-site intercessory

prayer had the lowest short- and long-term absolute complication rates." The

results did not reach statistical significance due to the small sample size,

but a full study is planned.

 

Pargament, K. I., H. G. Koenig, N. Tarakeshwar, J. Hahn. 2001. Religious

Struggle as a Predictor of Mortality Among Medically Ill Elderly Patients A

2-Year Longitudinal Study. Arch. Intern Med. 161, 1881-1883.

 

A new study examined the effect of "religious struggle" (defined by such

things as being angry at God or feeling punished by God) was predictive of

poorer physical recovery and higher mortality. According to the authors,

"Our findings suggest that patients who indicate religious struggle during a

spiritual history may be at particularly high risk for poor medical

outcomes. Referral of these patients to clergy to help them work through

these issues may ultimately improve clinical outcomes; further research is

needed to determine whether interventions that reduce religious struggles

might also improve medical prognosis."

 

Bliss, J.R., McSherry, E., and Fassett, J. 1995. NIH Conference on

Spirituality and Health Care Outcomes

Chaplain Intervention Reduces Costs in Major DRGs. Patients in the

intervention group had an average 2 day shorter post-op hospitalization,

resulting in an overall cost savings of $4,200 per patient. Randomized 331

open-heart surgery patients to either a chaplain intervention ("Modern

Chaplain Care") or usual care.

 

Chu, C.C., & Klein, H.E. 1985. Journal of the National Medical Association,

77:793-796.

 

Studying 128 Black schizophrenics and their families, investigators reported

that Black urban patients were less likely to be re-hospitalized if their

families encouraged them to continue religious worship while they were in

the hospital (p<.001).

 

Florell, J.L. 1973. Bulletin of the American Protestant Hospital Association

37(2):29-36.

 

Crisis-intervention in orthopedic surgery: Empirical evidence of the

effectiveness of a chaplain working with surgery patients. Randomized

patients either to a chaplain intervention, which involved chaplain visits

for 15 minutes/day per patient, or to a control group ("business as usual".

The chaplain intervention reduced length of stay by 29% (p<.001),

patient-initiated call on RN time to one-third, and use of PRN pain

medications to one-third.

 

Idler, E.L., & Kasl, S.V. 1997. Journal of Gerontology, 52B: S307-S316.

A longitudinal study of 2,812 older adults in New Haven, CT, found that

frequent religious attenders in 1982 were significantly less likely than

infrequent attenders to be physically disabled 12 years later, a finding

that persisted after controlling for health practices, social ties, and

indicators of well-being.

 

Kark, J.D., et al,. 1996. American Journal of Public Health, 86:341-346.

Even after eliminating social support and conventional health behaviors as

possible confounders, members of religious kibbutzim still lived longer than

those in secular kibbutzim. A 16-year mortality study, where 11 religious

kibbutzim were matched with 11 secular kibbutzim (n=3,900); careful matching

was performed to ensure that secular and religious kibbutzim were as similar

as possible in characteristics that might affect mortality (social support,

selection and retaining of members, etc.), and controlled for conventional

risk factors (drinking, smoking, plasma cholesterol levels. Of the 268

deaths that occurred, 69 were in religious and 199 in secular kibbutzim;

hazard ratio was 1.93 (95% CI 1.44-2.59, p<.0001).

 

Koenig, H.G. 1998. Religious attitudes and practices of hospitalized

medically ill older adults. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry,

13:213-224.

 

When a random sample of 338 hospitalized patients were asked an open-ended

question about what the most important factor was that enabled them to cope,

42.3% mentioned their religious faith.

 

Koenig H.G, et al. 1998. The relationship between religious activities and

blood pressure in older adults. International Journal of Psychiatry in

Medicine 28:189-213.

 

The relationship between religious activities and blood pressure was

examined in 6-year prospective study of 4,000 older adults. Among subjects

who attended religious services once a week or more and prayed or studied

the Bible once a day or more, the likelihood of diastolic hypertension was

40 percent lower than among those who attended services and prayed less

often (p<.0001, after controlling for age, sex, race, smoking, chronic

illness and body mass index).

 

Koenig, H.G., Pargament, K.I., and Nielsen, J. 1998. Religious coping and

health status in medically ill hospitalized older adults. Journal of Nervous

and Mental Disease, 186:513-521.

 

The authors concluded that religious coping behaviors related to better

mental health were at least as strong, if not stronger, than were

non-religious coping behaviors. A survey of 577 hospitalized medically ill

patients age 55 or over examined the relationship between 21 different types

of religious coping and mental and physical health. Religious coping

behaviors that were associated with better mental health were re-appraisal

of God as benevolent, collaboration with God, and giving religious help to

others. Re-appraisals of God as punishing, re-appraisals involving demonic

forces, pleading for direct intersection, and spiritual discontent were

associated with worse mental and physical health. Of the 21 religious coping

behaviors, 16 were significantly related to greater psychological growth, 15

were related to greater cooperativeness, and 16 were related to greater

spiritual growth.

 

Koenig HG, et al. 1997. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine

27:233-250.

 

Findings suggest that persons who attend church frequently have stronger

immune systems than less frequent attenders, and may help explain why both

better mental and better physical health are characteristic of frequent

church attenders. Reported that frequent religious attendance in 1986, 1989,

and 1992 predicted lower plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels in a sample of

1,718 older adults followed over six years. IL-6 levels are elevated in

patients with AIDS, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and other

serious medical conditions, and is an indicator of immune system function.

 

Koenig, H.G., George, L.K., Peterson, B.L. 1998. Use of health services by

hospitalized medically ill depressed elderly patients. American Journal of

Psychiatry, 155:536-542.

 

Found that depressed patients who had a strong intrinsic religious faith

recovered over 70% faster from depression than those with less strong faith;

among a subgroup of patients whose physical illness was not improving,

intrinsically religious patients recovered 100% faster.

Koenig, H.G., and Larson, D.B. 1998. Use of hospital services, religious

attendance, and religious affiliation. Southern Medical Journal, 91:925-932.

Found an inverse relationship between frequency of religious service

attendance and likelihood of hospital admission in a sample of 455 older

patients. Those who attended church weekly or more often were significantly

less likely in the previous year to have been admitted to the hospital, had

fewer hospital admissions, and spent fewer days in the hospital than those

attending less often; these associations retained their significance after

controlling for covariates. Patients unaffiliated with a religious community

had significantly longer index hospital stays than those affiliated.

Unaffiliated patients spent an average of 25 days in the hospital, compared

with 11 days for affiliated patients (p<.0001); this association

strengthened when physical health and other covariates were controlled.

 

Koenig, H.G., et al. 1998. The relationship between religious activities and

cigarette smoking in older adults. Journal of Gerontology A Biol Sci Med

Sci, 53: 6.

 

Substantially lower rates of smoking among persons more religiously involved

is likely to translate into lower rates of lung cancer, hypertension,

coronary artery disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cigarette

smoking and religious activities were examined in a 6-year prospective study

of 3,968 persons age 65 or older in North Carolina. Both likelihood of

current smoking and total number of pact years smoked were inversely related

to attendance at religious services and private religious activities. Higher

participation in religious activities at one wave predicted lower rates of

smoking at future waves. If persons both attended religious services at

least weekly and read the Bible or prayed at least daily, they were 990%

less likely to smoke than persons involved in these religious activities

less frequently (p<.0001, after multiple covariates were taken into

account).

 

McSherry, E., Ciulla, M., Salisbury, S., and Tsuang, D. 1987. Social Compass

35(4):515-537.

 

Heart surgery patients with higher than average personal religiousness

scores on admission and post-op had lengths of stay 20% less than those with

lower than average scores.

 

Oman, D., and Reed, D. 1998. American Journal of Public Health 88:1469-1475.

 

In a 5-yer prospective cohort study of 1,931 older residents of Marin

County, California, persons who attended religious services were 36% less

likely to die during the follow up period. When the variables (including

age, sex, marital status, number of chronic diseases, lower body disability,

balance problems, exercise, smoking status, alcohol use, weight, two

measures of social functioning and social support, and depression) were

controlled, persons who attended religious services were still 24% less

likely to die during the 5-yer follow up. During the 5-year follow up, there

were 454 deaths. Subjects were divided into 2 categories: "attenders"

(weekly or occasional attenders) and "non-attenders" (never attend).

 

Oxman, T.E., Freeman, D.H., and Manheimer, E.D. 1995. Psychosomatic

Medicine, 57:5-15.

 

The mortality rate in persons with low social support who did not depend on

their religious faith for strength, was 12 times that of persons with a

strong support network who relied heavily on religion; even when social

factors were accounted for, persons who depended on religion were only about

one-third as likely to die as those who did not. Followed 232 adults for six

months after open-heart surgery, examining predictors of mortality.

 

Pressman, P., Lyons, J.S., Larson, D.B., and Strain, J.J. 1990. American

Journal of Psychiatry, 147:758-759.

 

Reported that among 33 elderly women hospitalized with hip fracture, greater

religiousness was associated with less depression and longer walking

distances at the time of hospital discharge.

 

Propst, L.R., et al. 1992. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology,

60:94-103.

 

Religious therapy resulted in significantly faster recovery from depression

when compared with standard secular cognitive-behavioral therapy. Study

examined the effectiveness of using religion-based psychotherapy in the

treatment of 59 depressed religious patients. The religious therapy used

Christian religious rationales, religious arguments to counter irrational

thoughts, and religious imagery. What was surprising was that benefits from

religious-based therapy were most evident among patients who received

religious therapy from non-religious therapists.

 

Strawbridge, W.J., et al. 1997. American Journal of Public Health

87:957-961.

 

Frequent church attenders were more likely to stop smoking, increase

exercising, increase social contacts, and stay married; even after these

factors were controlled for, however, the mortality difference persisted.

Study reports the results of a 28-year follow-up study of 5,000 adults

involved in the Berkeley Human Population Laboratory. Mortality for persons

attending religious services once/week or more often was almost 25% lower

than for persons attending religious services less frequently; for women,

the mortality rate was reduced by 35%.

<< back

 

Other References

Benson, H. 1984. Beyond the Relaxation Response. New York Times Books

Benson, H., and McCallie, D.P., Jr. 1979. Angina pectoris and the placebo

effect. New England Journal of Medicine 300:1424-29

Benson, H. 1996. Timeless Healing. New York: Scribner.

Conway, K. 1985-1986. Coping with the stress of medical problems among black

and white elderly. International Journal of Aging and Human Development,

21:39-48.

Harris, R.C., Dew, M.A., Lee, A., Amaya, M., Buches, L., Reetz, D., and

Coleman, G. 1995. The role of religion in heart transplant recipients'

health and well-being. Journal of Religion and Health, 34:17-32.

Kaczorowski, J.M. 1989. Spiritual well-being and anxiety in adults diagnosed

with cancer. The Hospice Journal 5:105-116.

O'Brien, M.E. 1982. Religious faith and adjustment to long-term

hemodialysis. Journal of Religion and Health 21:68-80.

Roberts, J.A., Brown, D., Elkins, T., and Larson, D.B. 1997. Factors

influencing views of patients with gynecologic cancer about end-of-life

decisions. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 176:166-172.

Whitlatch, A.M., Meddaugh, D.I., and Langhout, K.J. 1992. Religiosity among

Alzheimer's disease caregivers. The American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease

and Related Disorders & Research 11-20 ®.

(Text PAMHO:11178629) -----

 

------- End of Forwarded Message ------