Spirituality Influences Health, Most U.S. Doctors Say

But only a minority thinks religion affects medical outcomes, study finds.

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Tuesday, April 10, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

TUESDAY, April 10 (HealthDay News) -- The majority of American doctors think that religion and spirituality play an important role in influencing patients' health, a new review found.

And the more religious a doctor was, the more likely he or she was to have a positive view of the impact of religion and spirituality on health, according to the study by researchers at the University of Chicago.

"This study helps explain the phenomenon that, despite many studies that examine the relationship between religion and health, there is an entrenched debate and disagreement about whether there is any such relationship," said lead author Dr. Farr A. Curlin, an assistant professor of medicine.

"A big reason why this debate won't go away is because the debate is not just about the data, it's about the frames of mind people bring to the data," Curlin said.

The majority of U.S. doctors -- 56 percent -- believes that religion and spirituality influence patient's health, Curlin said. "The influence mostly helps patients cope with illness and gives them a positive state of mind," he added.

A minority of doctors -- 7 percent -- believes that religion and spirituality can have a negative influence, Curlin said. "Sometimes, these beliefs can lead patients to refuse or not go along with medically recommended therapies," he said.

Curlin noted that "most doctors don't believe that religion has an influence on hard medical outcomes -- like heart attacks, infections, etcetera. The influence is more on helping get through and cope with an illness."

In the study, published in the April 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, Curlin and his colleagues sent a survey to 1,820 doctors, and 1,144 -- 63 percent -- of them responded. Included in the survey were questions about the doctors' religious beliefs and attitudes about the positive and negative influence of religion and spirituality.

The researchers found that two-thirds of the doctors believed that illness often or always increases patients' awareness of religion and spirituality. In addition, 56 percent thought religion and spirituality had a significant influence on health. Also, 54 percent believed that, sometimes, a supernatural being intervenes in care.