(HealthCanal.com) — As you are weighing whether or not to go to church services this Christmas, consider this: Does a belief in God confer any health benefits? With the help of a large Norwegian longitudinal health study called HUNT, researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) were able to find a clear relationship between time spent in church and lower blood pressure in both women and men.
The more time in church, the better
“We found that the more often HUNT participants went to church, the lower their blood pressure, even when we controlled for a number of other possible explanatory factors,” says Torgeir Sørensen, a PhD candidate from the School of Theology and Religious Psychology Centre at Sykehuset Innlandet (Inland Hospital).
“This is the first study of its kind in Scandinavia. Previous research from the United States has shown that there is a possible link between people who attend church and blood pressure. However, large religious and cultural differences between the US and Norway make it difficult to transfer these findings to the Norwegian context,” says Sørensen.
About 90% of the population of the county of Nord-Trøndelag, where the HUNT study was conducted, are members of the Norwegian state church, while Americans show a much broader distribution in their religious and ethical preferences.
“About 40% of the US population goes to church on a weekly basis, while the corresponding figure in Nord-Trøndelag County is 4%. For that reason, we did not expect to find any correlation between going to church and blood pressure in Nord-Trøndelag. Our findings, however, are almost identical to those previously reported from the United States. We were really surprised,” Sørensen said.
The Bible and blood pressure
“Since this is a cross-sectional study, it is not possible to say whether it was a health condition that affected the participants’ religious activity, or whether it was the religious activity that affected the state of participants’ health,” says Professor Jostein Holmen from NTNU’s Faculty of Medicine, and one of the authors of the study.
A cross-sectional study says something about a group of people at a given time, but can say nothing about causation. ”In order to determine what causes the effect, we need new studies that look at the same people at different times,” says Holmen.
For this study, church attendance was selected as a variable to represent religious activity, and blood pressure was selected as a variable that gives an indication of overall health with respect to a variety of diseases and conditions. The study found that the variable used to measure religious activities (church time) had a significant relationship to the variable used to measure health (blood pressure). In other words, those who were religiously active were healthier than those who were not religiously active.
“The study of the relationship between religion and health has rarely focused on other religions, such as Judaism and Islam. It is therefore difficult to say anything about whether or not this same association can be found in these communities,” says Sørensen.
Humor, culture and faith
The residents of Nord-Trøndelag County have participated in three HUNT surveys since 1984. These studies have not only examined risk factors for disease and death, but have also evaluated factors that might contribute to good health. The second survey, HUNT 2, which was conducted in 1995-97, included questions about the participant’s sense of humor in the overall questionnaire. The HUNT 3 study (2006-08) included questions about participation in cultural activities and religious beliefs in the questionnaire that was used as a part of the survey.
All told, the HUNT databases contain information about approximately 120,000 people, and make it possible to integrate family data and individual data that then can be linked to Norway’s national health registries.
“These factors have been poorly investigated in previous studies of different populations. The research into lifestyle and health issues mainly comes from the United States, while information from Europe and Scandinavia is very limited,” says Holmen, who was one of the initiators of the first HUNT study in the early 1980s.
(8 votes, average: 4.63 out of 5)
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The result of this study is evidence that when a person honours God that individual is rewarded with good health. This is one of the benefits of acknowledging our maker.
If the goal of believing in God is to ensure that one gets into Heaven (clearly a better place than life here on earth), than why should we care about living longer here on earth? It is most likely that our life on earth is the only life we have, so it is wryly amusing that belief in a (probably) imaginary being should help us to live longer. Probably religious belief is a creation of human beings, and we have evolved so that we benefit from denying that we live in a (probably) meaningless universe and that we eventually die for no purpose and no reason. If God existed, humans would have plenty of purpose to revile and curse this being. For example, near where I live, a nine-year-old girl was killed on Christmas day because the car in which she was riding was smashed by a falling tree. Is this an “Act of God?” Should her family thank Him?
Khan Dear,
The Christmas day story you mentioned is indeed very touching. As Christians we worship God without any iota of doubt. The evidence of His presence, blessings and care are overwhelming. We are often puzzled though when we hear or see this type of tragedy happen. You must know that the Devil is here to kill, steal and destroy us. This is why everyone born of a woman should embrace God Almighty in Christ Jesus and live above the Devil’s wicked plans. Salvation in Jesus Christ is free for everyone and that includes you my friend. God bless
Dearest Khan,
I urge you to find a bible, read it through, and only then should you draw a fresh conclusion. Wondered the source of your life? the wisdom you have as compared to all other creations? Only man was created in the image of the almighty God whom you shall encounter soon!!
The old saying Stephen is ” Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die”. Health is a major factor in enjoying the life that God has given us here on earth. The two pillars of the Christian faith have always been , health ie hospitals etc and schooling. I f you look at some of the greatest schools and hospitals and medical breakthroughs they probably have their origions in a christian nation started by our forefathers.
Of course, if there is a God, there should also be a devil to blame for all of those cruel “acts of God” that seems to defy any possible belief in an all loving, compassionate creator, isn’t it?. Then we should blame the Devil also for the countless innocent victims of the 2004, Indonesia tsunami or the around 200K victims of the 2009 Haiti’s earthquake, the Columbine school massacre (and not the psychological deviations and psychiatric treatment the perpetrators had), and in general, of all evil that has happened since the humans walk on this Earth, and will surely happen in the future. Very simple and straightforward, in fact, too much simple and straightforward to be true.