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Op Ed - Public health’s spirituality disconnect - Harvard Public Health

September 13, 2024

The separation of church and state has long represented a hallowed legal principle. As a result, perhaps, the field of public health has often divorced itself from spirituality—to the detriment not only of the diverse populations we serve but also of...

VanderWeele: Religiosity and telomere length: One step forward, one step back

August 26, 2016

Hill et al. (2016) report a positive association between religiosity (a summary measure of service attendance, frequency of prayer, and religious identity) and telomere length. Their results, if repli- cated in other studies with more rigorous designs...

Li: Religious Service Attendance and Lower Depression Among Women—a Prospective Cohort Study

August 26, 2016

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies on the association between religious service attendance and depression have been mostly cross-sectional, subject to reverse causation, and did not account for the potential feedback between religious service attendance and...

VanderWeele: Association Between Religious Service Attendance and Lower Suicide Rates Among US Women

July 18, 2016

IMPORTANCE: Previous studies have linked suicide risk with religious participation, but the majority have used ecologic, cross-sectional, or case-control data. OBJECTIVE: To examine the longitudinal association between religious service attendance and...

Medicine as Vocation: An Interview with Dr. Abraham Nussbaum

July 12, 2016

Author of: The Finest Traditions of My Calling The evolution of medicine away from individual patient-centered care and towards a more efficient, population-based approach has had large repercussions on the quality and depth of care delivered to the ill...

IHRS in the News: Association of Religious Service Attendance with Mortality Among Women

June 23, 2016

Numerous media reports have been made on the findings from a recently published study in JAMA Internal Medicine by Drs. Shanshan Li, Meir Stampfer, David Williams, and Tyler VanderWeele entitled "Association of Religious Service Attendance with Mortality...

Science of Connectedness: Blog by Summer 2016 Intern Sarah Koss

June 23, 2016

Science of Connectedness is a new blog by Sarah Koss that explores spirituality and health through research and reflection. Sarah Koss is a Summer 2016 research intern working with Drs. Michael and Tracy Balboni, with a primarily focus on the National...

VanderWeele: Association of Religious Service Attendance With Mortality Among Women

May 17, 2016

IMPORTANCE: Studies on the association between attendance at religious services and mortality often have been limited by inadequate methods for reverse causation, inability to assess effects over time, and limited information on mediators and cause...

Kim: Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide of Patients With Psychiatric Disorders in the Netherlands 2011 to 2014

May 09, 2016

IMPORTANCE: Euthanasia or assisted suicide (EAS) of psychiatric patients is increasing in some jurisdictions such as Belgium and the Netherlands. However, little is known about the practice, and it remains controversial. OBJECTIVES: To describe the...

Peteet: Does a Therapist's World View Matter?

May 09, 2016

While past research indicates that mental health professionals are less religious than the public they serve, little is known about the implications of therapists' world views for their practice. In this study, approximately 50 therapists completed...

LeBaron: How Community Clergy Provide Spiritual Care: Toward a Conceptual Framework for Clergy End-of-Life Education

May 06, 2016

Context: Community-based clergy are highly engaged in helping terminally ill patients address spiritual concerns at the end of life (EOL). Despite playing a central role in EOL care, clergy report feeling ill-equipped to spiritually support patients in...

Rosmarin: Interest in Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy Among Acute Psychiatric Patients

December 23, 2015

OBJECTIVE: Spiritually integrated psychotherapy (SIP) is increasingly common, though systematic assessment of interest in such treatments, and predictors of such interest, has not yet been conducted among acute psychiatric patients. METHODS: We conducted...