Religion and medicine

Abstract

Richard Sloan and colleagues1Sloan RP Bagiella E Powell T Religion, spirituality, and medicine.Lancet. 1999; 353: 664-667Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (526) Google Scholar present the skeptical side of the scientific debate on the religion-health relation. Although I agree that the evidence needs careful evaluation and that we should be careful in applying the results of this research to clinical practice, I find that their review overemphasises the negative aspects of many highly credible studies, neglects an enormous body of research on the relation between religion and mental health, and argues ethical issues on the basis of personal opinions and strawman arguments rather than scientific evidence. A comprehensive rebuttal to Sloan and colleagues will be published elsewhere, in which my colleagues and I provide a detailed critique.2Koenig HG, Idler E, Kasl S, et al. Religion, spirituality, and medicine: a rebuttal to skeptics. Int J Psychiatry Med (in press).Google Scholar We have completed a systematic review of over 1100 studies on the religion-health relation (over 325 studies on physical health and nearly 800 studies on mental health).3Koenig HG, McCullough M, Larson DB, eds. Religion and health: a century of research reviewed. New York: Oxford University Press (in press).Google Scholar Most of these studies show a relation between greater religious involvement and better mental health, better physical health, or lower use of health services. A few of these studies,4Oman D Reed D Religion and mortality among the community-dwelling elderly.Am J Public Health. 1998; 88: 1469-1475Crossref PubMed Scopus (205) Google Scholar, 5Hummer R, Rogers R, Nam C, Ellison CG. Religious attendance and mortality in the US adult population. Demography (in press).Google Scholar which used state-of-the-art statistical methods, show substantially longer survival for those who are religiously involved. In a US sample of over 20 000 adults, religious involvement was estimated to prolong life by about 7 years (14 years for African Americans).5Hummer R, Rogers R, Nam C, Ellison CG. Religious attendance and mortality in the US adult population. Demography (in press).Google Scholar Religion may affect health by promoting health practices, enhancing social support, and offering comfort in sitiuations of stress and suffering. When I look at the best epidemiological studies in this area, I do not find the weak and inconsistent relations that Sloan and colleagues claim; instead, I see evidence for a strong association between religious involvement and health that puts religion in the same category as other psychosocial factors where research has had more time to accumulate.