The impacts of religion on health can be both positive and negative, depending on the belief levels of the person.
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Religion commonly would be perceived as increasing life expectancy and reducing mortality for believers.
A study in the 1996 (Kark et al) has found that individuals belonging to the religious communities studied were about half as likely as their nonreligious counterparts to have died. The study compared death rates for 3900 Israelis in religious and nonreligious settlements over a period of 16 years. The implications of the study are also quite clear. What it did not specify was the age groups and safety issues in the areas studied. Obviously if the nonreligious settlement was composed of people over 80 years old then after 16 years a lot of them would have died. The explanations of the impact of religion on death rates are also unclear. It could be perhaps that the religious settlements had access to healthy food and better medications or were simply wealthier to afford better healthcare, which would ultimately translate to such findings.
Another religious lifestyle aspect, particularly church attendance has been found to increase life expectancy (Hummer et al 1999). Church non-attendees were 1.87 times more likely to have died than were those attending more than once per week. This translated into a life expectancy at age 20 of 83 years for frequent attendees and 75 years for non-attendees. This is particularly interesting because it focused on only one variable of religious activity. The finding, however, does not prove that religion in itself increases life expectancy. More so, the social activity (church attendance) would translate to the increase. Private religious activities such as prayer or meditation have had comparatively interesting results.
One study (Helm et al 2000) found that the lack of private religious activity predicted a 47% greater risk of dying.
Meditation has also been found to be a very effective tool to cope with stressful events (Astin 1997). These findings suggest that religion has indeed a positive impact on health when compared to non-religious subjects.
The first study examining the issue of ‘religious struggle’ in elderly patients and how it affects mortality had interesting results. After controlling for the demographic, physical health, and mental health variables, higher religious struggle scores at baseline were predictive of greater risk of mortality (Pargament et al 2001). Results indicate that patients, with a previously sound religious life, experienced a 19% to 28% greater mortality due to the belief that God was supposedly punishing them or abandoning them.
Another study on college students showed that the difficulty forgiving God and alienation from God were associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety (Exline et al 1999). Among those who currently believed in God, forgiving God for a specific, unfortunate incident predicted lower levels of anxious and depressed mood.
On a distant extreme, it can be argued that some religious beliefs can push one to do something socially undesirable- suicide terrorism.
There are several possible explanations of the apparent impacts of religion on health.
Firstly- God himself has a direct impact on the health of believers and non-believers. This is clearly superficial explanation and if it were true one would think that why only such little impact on health was given.
Secondly- different mediators are needed to be combined with religion in order to have an impact on health. Most religions advocate a healthy lifestyle. A person with strong or casual religious beliefs is less likely to engage in unhealthy habits such as cigarette smoking or alcohol consumption. The effects of these two variables on health are clearly very negative. About five million people worldwide die as a result of smoking related diseases (West 2007). The same goes for alcohol consumption, which is a leading cause of organ damage and violence. By restricting oneself from these unhealthy habits, one is healthier and hence this could be an explanation for the intervention of external mediators of the religious impact on health. Healthy eating habituates will also translate to lower mortality. Many religions also encourage social interaction. Good social support can help protect against the harmful effects of stress by helping people cope better with incidents or depression. Another intervening variable is the general optimism that religion applies to its practitioners. Many religions offer hope for the future, which may make stress less severe These explanations suggest that religion in itself is not what impacts health, rather, it’s the behaviors that go along with religion- are the factors contributing to better health.
And lastly, religious belief involves a placebo effect. A placebo effect might take place in religious individuals. People believe that by the mere act of believing they will be healthier and expected to live longer, higher quality lives. The hope that is offered by religious authority and other miraculous experiences affect psychologically the religious individuals.