Religion and Health

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how scientific medicine is disease-focused and largely concerned with physiological causal pathways. As such, the biomedical approach to healing is focused almost exclusively on the body and how best it can be manipulated to give the desired outcome, without taking into account the surrounding environment or the "spirit". The paper explains how this perspective, though still the norm today, started to change a little in the 1970s when several studies and reports were released which showed evidence that environment and behavior play a significant role in whether a person develops a disease. The author continues to explore the information regarding the impact that religion has on health and how this information can be used to promote and attain better health in the United States population.
Introduction
Religion: Definition and Measurements
Population: United States
Religious Effects on Health Status
Physical Health Outcomes
Mental Health Outcomes and Well-Being
Health Care Utilization
Prevention/Intervention Strategy
References

From the Paper:

"As stated above, religion is multidimensional and as such cannot be measured by one or two parameters like blood pressure, height, or weight. Unfortunately, the bulk of studies completed to date have often measured religion or religious involvement through one or two, often behavioral, means such as church attendance, prayer, and denominational affiliation (Ellison and Levin, 1998; Ellison et al, 2001; Chatters, 2000). A great part of the reason why the bulk of studies have concentrated on behavioral measures is because although these measures are vulnerable to recall bias, they are not nearly as difficult or controversial as subjective measures of religious involvement (Ellison and Levin, 1998; Hill et al, 2001). However, it is very difficult to both tease out the mechanisms through which religion has its effects on health and create a general consensus on the issue using these current measurement methods."

More papers on Religion and Health:

• Research Paper # 91857 : "Religion and Spirituality in End-of-life Care"
• Persuasive Essay # 128443 : "Religion and Marriage and the Quality of Life"
• Essay # 54470 : "Religion and Culture"

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