As the debate over the relationship between spirituality and health intensifies in scientific and theological circles, large segments of the general public appear convinced there is a connection between faith and health. In a 1997 George H. Gallup International Institute study for the Nathan Cummins Foundation and Fetzer Institute*, 70% of adults said it was very or somewhat important to have a doctor who is spiritually attuned to them.
Findings from several scientific studies about religion's effect on an individual's overall health have given weight to the idea that spirituality and health are closely related. Last month at Duke University, Dr. Harold G. Koenig was featured at a conference addressing the issue. Koenig, a psychiatrist at Duke, emphasizes in his Handbook of Religion and Health the positive relationship that religion has with health. At the opposite end of the debate is Dr. Richard P. Sloan, a psychologist at Columbia University who has challenged the recent assumptions about the benefits of religion on health by faulting the methodology of several large studies.
Gallup data indicate that a large number of Americans draw a connection between spirituality and healthcare. Only 6% of respondents in Gallup's 2001 Health of the Nation survey** reported that they had a doctor pray for them when they had a serious health problem. However, almost half (47%) said they would like their doctor to pray with them during times of illness. Among those who experienced a doctor praying with them, almost all (93%) think the doctor's prayers helped them deal with their medical problem. In addition, most (97%) believe the prayers helped them recover.
The support of a majority of the public for having a doctor who is spiritually attuned to them -- and the interest in having doctors pray with and for them -- may be rooted in personal experience. According to the 2001 survey, 27% of Americans have experienced a remarkable healing, with 21% noting a physical healing and 16% a psychological or emotional healing.
Dr. William Haynes is a retired New Jersey cardiologist, who prayed with and for his patients. "In recent years there has been a recognition that prayer can play a significant role in healing being used as an adjunct, and not as an alternative, to standard medical practice. The patient needs a compassionate person and a caring community to avoid feeling all alone," Haynes said. "There is an ever-increasing amount of literature to show how a support system of friends, clergy and prayers can stimulate the immune system and thereby help with healing."
Another doctor who has consistently prayed with his patients over the years is Dr. Dale Matthews, associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine and Senior Fellow at the National Institute for Healthcare Research. He writes in The Faith Factor, "The lessons my patients and others have learned from personal experience are echoed in over three hundred clinical studies that demonstrate one simple fact: faith is good medicine. Indeed, the medical effect of religious commitment is not a matter of faith, but of science, and both doctors and patients are taking part in a revolutionary convergence of medicine and faith, which is transforming the way people seek healing."
*Results are based on a nationally representative survey of 1,212 adults, aged 18 or older, conducted during June 1997. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±3%.
**Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,000 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted April 11-29, 2001. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±3%.
