Religion and Health: Is There a Link?

Sept. 29, 2010 — -- Many scientific studies in recent years have sought to prove a link between religion and health, and they usually ended up contending that faith may be very good medicine. But new research attempts to look at the opposite side of that coin: What happens when a person loses faith, or even switches from one religious group to another?

Health declines, in some cases dramatically, especially among those who switch from a church with high, rigid moral standards to one with a more relaxed view of morality, according to the latest study.

"Previous research has devoted significant attention to understanding the link between health and personal religious beliefs and practices, typically finding that more religious people tend to have better health," the researchers assert in the opening sentence of their study. "However, almost no attention has been given to how switching religious groups or leaving religion altogether is related to self-reported health."

Christopher P. Scheitle, a senior research assistant in sociology at Pennsylvania State University, and Amy Adamczyk, an assistant professor of sociology at the City University of New York, examined a huge database and found that switching churches may be bad for your health, especially if you are a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness.

The study is published in the current issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

The study analyzed 30,523 cases that are part of the General Social Survey from 1972 through 2006, conducted annually or biennially by the National Opinion Research Center. Participants were asked the same questions year after year, in addition to new questions reflecting current events. Religious affiliation and health were among the questions.

The researchers singled out the Mormon Church and Jehovah's Witnesses as the leading "high-cost sectarian groups" because of the high standards that members are held to, and the "high cost" of dropping out. Other categories include "mainline Protestants," Catholics, Jews and no religion at all. All of the conclusions are based on the participants own perception of his or her health over the 34 years covered by the survey.