{"id":7249,"date":"2022-07-22T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T14:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=7249"},"modified":"2022-07-22T10:00:11","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T14:00:11","slug":"research-finds-that-spirituality-can-lead-to-a-healthier-longer-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/07\/research-finds-that-spirituality-can-lead-to-a-healthier-longer-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Research Finds That Spirituality Can Lead to a Healthier, Longer Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A high level of spirituality is associated with better health outcomes, according to research from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists report that spirituality helps in reference to both severe illness and overall health. In light of their findings, the authors posit spirituality should be incorporated into various healthcare settings.<\/p>\n<p>What exactly does \u201cspirituality\u201d mean in this research? \u00a0Per the International Consensus Conference on Spiritual Care in Health Care<em>,\u00a0<\/em>spirituality is \u201cthe way individuals seek ultimate meaning, purpose, connection, value, or transcendence.\u201d While it\u00a0may encompass\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/studyfinds.org\/category\/religion\">organized religion<\/a>\u00a0for many, it can also refer to many other ways of \u201cfinding ultimate meaning.\u201d Examples include forming\u00a0connections with nature, community, or family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis study represents the most rigorous and comprehensive systematic analysis of the modern-day literature regarding health and spirituality to date,\u201d says lead study author Tracy Balboni, senior physician at the Dana-Farber\/Brigham and Women\u2019s Cancer Center and professor of radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School, in a\u00a0statement.<\/p>\n<p>She continued, \u00a0\u201cOur findings indicate that attention to spirituality in serious illness and in health should be a vital part of future whole person-centered care, and the results should stimulate more national discussion and progress on how spirituality can be incorporated into this type of value-sensitive care.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7252\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7252\" style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2022\/07\/Capture-2.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-7252\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2022\/07\/Capture-2-350x266.png\" alt=\"prayers\" width=\"520\" height=\"395\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7252\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 4Max &#8211; stock.adobe.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cSpirituality is important to many patients as they\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/studyfinds.org\/category\/health\">think about their health<\/a>,\u201d adds Tyler VanderWeele, the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Harvard Chan School. \u201cFocusing on spirituality in health care means caring for the whole person, not just their disease.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To research this nuanced topic, study authors systematically identified and subsequently analyzed all available high-quality evidence of spirituality in connection with serious illness and health published between January 2000-April 2022.\u00a0Across 8,946 articles focusing on serious illness, 371 met the researchers\u2019 criteria. Meanwhile, another 215 articles (out of 6.485) focusing on health outcomes also met the criteria for inclusion.<\/p>\n<p>Next, a structured, multidisciplinary group of 27 experts called a\u00a0<em>Delphi panel\u00a0<\/em>came together to analyze the most substantial collective evidence extracted from those scientific articles. The board was comprised of various health care\/medicine experts and spirituality. Members represented various spiritual\/religious views\u00a0such as Muslim, Catholic, Christian denominations, Hindu,\u00a0atheist, and \u201cspiritual but not religious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The panel concluded that for a generally healthy person, \u201cspiritual community participation\u201d (attending religious services, for example) is linked to a healthier life,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/studyfinds.org\/category\/longevity\">greater longevity<\/a>, better mental health, and less substance use.\u00a0Moreover, for many people, spirituality influences key outcomes across illness scenarios, such as quality of life and medical care decisions. In response to these findings, study authors believe spirituality should be more universally accounted for across health care settings.<\/p>\n<p>Doctors and clinicians should also be aware of how much\u00a0a little bit of spirituality\u00a0can help.\u00a0Researchers say that asking about a patient\u2019s spirituality can and should be a standard aspect of patient-centered, value-sensitive care. Information gathered from that conversation can then be used to inform other medical decision-making. For example, whether or not to contact a spiritual care specialist.\u00a0Spiritual care specialists, such as a chaplain, are trained to provide clinical pastoral care to patients in need \u2013 regardless of their\u00a0religious affiliation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A high level of spirituality is associated with better health outcomes, according to research from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital. Scientists report that spirituality helps in reference to both severe illness and overall health. In light of their findings, the authors posit spirituality should be incorporated into&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":7252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-something-to-think-about","category-well-being"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Research Finds That Spirituality Can Lead to a Healthier, Longer Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scientists report that spirituality helps in reference to both severe illness and overall health and should be included in healthcare.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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