Many Clinicians Believe Religion, Spirituality Benefit Patients' Health

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April 12, 2007 — Many clinicians believe religion and spirituality have a positive effect on patients' health, and clinicians' beliefs also influence their clinical observations, according to the results of a study reported in the April 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"In spite of a substantial body of empirical data, professional disagreement persists regarding whether and how religion and spirituality (R/S; treated as a single concept) influences health," write Farr A. Curlin, MD, from The University of Chicago in Illinois, and colleagues. "This study examines the association between physicians' religious characteristics and their observations and interpretations of the influence of R/S on health."

The investigators mailed a cross-sectional survey to a stratified, random sample of 2000 practicing US clinicians from all specialties. This survey asked clinicians to estimate how often patients mention R/S issues, how much R/S affects health, and in what ways this effect is evident.

The response rate to the survey was 63%. Although 56% of clinicians believed that R/S had much or very much influence on health, only 6% believed that R/S often changed "hard" medical outcomes. In contrast, most clinicians believed that R/S often helps patients to cope (76%), puts patients in a positive frame of mind (75%), and provides emotional and practical support via the religious community (55%).

Compared with clinicians reporting low religiosity, those reporting high religiosity are more likely to report that patients often mention R/S issues (36% vs 11%; P < .001), believe that R/S strongly affects health (82% vs 16%; P < .001), and interpret the effect of R/S in positive rather than in negative ways.

"Patients are likely to encounter quite different opinions about the relationship between their R/S and their health, depending on the religious characteristics of their physicians," the authors write.

Study limitations include possible response bias and difficulty in measuring clinician religiosity.

"Limitations notwithstanding, these findings challenge any aspirations to a consensus interpretation of the relationship between R/S and health," the authors conclude. "Indeed, consensus is probably an unrealistic aim if disagreements are rooted in differences that go as deep as religion. These findings might rather lend support to the Association of American Medical Colleges' recommendation that physicians 'recognize that their own spirituality... might affect the ways they relate to, and provide care to, patients.'"

The Greenwall Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health supported this study. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:649-654.