Faith Moves Mountains—Mountains Move Faith: Two Opposite Epidemiological Forces in Research on Religion and Health

Research suggests opposite epidemiological forces in religion and health: (1). Faith seems to move mountains in the sense that religion is associated with positive health outcomes. (2). Mountains of bad health seem to move faith. We reflected on these forces in a population of 3000 young Danish twin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and health
Authors: Hvidt, N. C. (Author) ; Christensen, K. (Author)
Contributors: Hvidtjørn, D. (Other) ; Nielsen, J. B. (Other) ; Søndergaard, J. (Other)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. [2017]
In: Journal of religion and health
Further subjects:B Religious Coping
B Religious seeking
B Meaning-making
B religious struggle
B Spirituality and health
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:Research suggests opposite epidemiological forces in religion and health: (1). Faith seems to move mountains in the sense that religion is associated with positive health outcomes. (2). Mountains of bad health seem to move faith. We reflected on these forces in a population of 3000 young Danish twins in which all religiosity measures were associated with severe disease. We believe the reason for this novel finding is that the sample presents as a particularly secular population-based study and that the second epidemiological force has gained the upper hand in this sample. We suggest that all cross-sectional research on religion and health should be interpreted in light of such opposite epidemiological forces potentially diluting each other.
ISSN:1573-6571
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-016-0300-1