Scientists dismiss prayer as a factor in health

Prayer might be good for the soul but is not a factor in health and there is therefore no justification for introducing it into clinical medicine, according to a research review by a team of Columbia University scientists.

"We believe even in the best of studies the evidence of a relationship between religion, spirituality and health is weak and inconsistent," according to Dr Richard Sloan and colleagues who published a report in the current issue of the leading UK medical journal, Lancet.

"Much of the scientific data for claims about religion and health is highly questionable," they say. "It provides no empirical justification for the introduction of religious activities into clinical medicine."

They reviewed hundreds of studies that attempted to show health benefits connected with prayer, church attendance and other forms of spirituality. Many contained serious methodological problems, the authors claimed, and involved small numbers of subjects.

Many failed to control for other factors that could account for positive findings such as age, health status and health behaviours, they added.

The authors noted that there was much current interest in connecting religion and medicine. Almost 30 US medical schools included courses in religion, spirituality and health in their curriculums, they pointed out.

They also cited a 1996 survey of 296 family physicians which showed that 99 per cent were convinced that religious beliefs could heal, while 75 per cent believed that prayers of others could promote a patient's recovery.

Dr Sloan warned that doctors should not depart from their areas of established expertise to promote a non-medical agenda. "It is just as inappropriate for physicians to counsel religious practice for the sake of better health as it is for them to advise an unmarried patient to marry because the data show that marriage is linked with lower death rates."

The group acknowledged that religious and spiritual activities provided comfort for many patients. "No one can object to respectful support for those patients who draw upon religious faith in times of illness," Dr Sloan said.