U-M to lead major effort to solidify research on religion and health

ANN ARBOR-The relationship between religion, spirituality and health has received considerable attention in recent years but the array of studies has fallen short of establishing solid explanations for why religion has both positive and negative effects on human physiology. With an $8 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, a University of Michigan researcher and four colleagues plan to provide some structure to the field, with goals to better pinpoint the relationship and to influence future research practice on the subject. Neal Krause, the Marshall H. Becker Collegiate Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the U-M School of Public Health, and colleagues will conduct a landmark spirituality and health survey as one component of a plan to address a field that has not yet established cause and effect between religion and health. Krause said problems with methodology, including small sample sizes, and other challenges withquality have plagued much of the research to date. "Research has shown, for example, that people who go to church more often have better health. But we don't know if this means that religion makes people healthier or whether only healthy people are able to get to church in the first place," Krause said. "In order to unravel this and a host of similar issues, you have to follow the same people over time.