Religion And Health: Very Religious People Score Higher In Health Self-Evaluations

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/religion-and-health_n_1290740.html



by: Jaweed Kaleem
First Posted: 02/21/2012 2:20 pm Updated: 02/21/2012 2:37 pm


Are more religious people healthier than less religious people?

A new analysis of Gallup surveys of more than 676,000 Americans suggests they may be -- and the pattern stands across religious traditions.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index telephone survey asked a random sample of Americans across the country to rate or describe how healthy they were in several categories, such as overall quality of life, emotional health, physical health, healthy behavior habits, job satisfaction and access to doctors and other health resources. Responses were used to give each person well-being scores on a scale of 0 to 100. Interviewees were also asked to identify their religion (if any) and how religious they were.

When well-being scores were compared to religiosity, "very religious" Americans had modestly higher scores in most areas compared with "moderately religious" and nonreligious people. The only area where nonreligious people scored higher than religious people was in physical health.




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[handmade34]

1. ignorance truly is bliss

and I mean that with no derisiveness...

[Viva_Daddy]

2. Right. Because self-evaluations are so objective.

[cbayer]

3. Agree and while the differences may be statistically significant, they sure are close.

I don't put much stock in this other than as an indicator of how people view themselves.

[Jim__]

4. If I am reading this correctly, the survey took place across a 2 year time span.

It would be interesting to see if there was any significant change in results occurred across that time span.