Godless in the Great White North: Assessing the Health of Canadian Atheists Using Data from the 2011/2012 Canadian Community Health Survey

An overlooked reason to study atheism and health is that it provides a reasonably strong test of the broader religion-health relationship. Using data from the 2011/2012 Canadian Community Health Survey (n > 8000) I explored the health differences between atheists and eight categories of religious...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and health
Main Author: Speed, David ca. 20./21. Jh. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. 2022
In: Journal of religion and health
Further subjects:B Mental Health Continuum—Short Form
B Canadian Community Health Survey
B Statistics Canada
B Self-rated health
B Atheists
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:An overlooked reason to study atheism and health is that it provides a reasonably strong test of the broader religion-health relationship. Using data from the 2011/2012 Canadian Community Health Survey (n > 8000) I explored the health differences between atheists and eight categories of religious identities (nonreligious, Anglican, Baptist, Christian, Protestant, Catholic, United Church, and All Others). Surprisingly, results showed no substantive differences between atheists and non-atheists for self-rated health, emotional well-being, and psychological well-being. In contrast, results showed substantive and consistent differences between atheists and non-atheists with respect to social well-being. Results appear to suggest that while religious groups report superior scores on health proxies relative to atheists, this does not translate into substantive health differences.
ISSN:1573-6571
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-020-01169-3