In a recent Time magazine (Feb’09), I came across an interesting article suggesting that beliefs in a religion improve health.
Here are some summaries.
- People who attend religious services tend to have lower risk of dying in any one year compared to those who don’t attend any religious services.
- People who believe in a loving God tend to fare better after being diagnosed with an illness compared to those who believe in a punitive God.
- According to Robert Hummer’s study, people who don’t attend religious services are twice at risk of dying over the next 8 years compared to those who attend weekly services.
- According to Daniel Hall, church attendance correlates with 2-3 additional years of life.
- There are benefits for having pastoral care in addition to medical care. But doctors are often slow in referring patients to spiritual counselors, e.g. hospital chaplain.
Ironically, recently in the UK, a nurse faced disciplinary action and possible unemployment for offering a prayer to a patient. The patient was not offended but the incident was reported and the nurse was suspended. She was later reinstated following some legal actions. Read the news here. Well, should the medical board have educated themselves with the latest health studies, they would have appreciated her above-and-beyond-call-of-duty commitment!