FALSE or TRUE: Church attendance is good for your health

The correlation between church attendance and good health is a strong relationship.

Put simply, people who attend church on a regular basis also have better health than do people who do not attend church on a regular basis.

So, what’s my issue? It’s the old problem that never goes away-- correlations do not mean causation. The fact that people who attend church have better health than those who don’t, does not mean attending church caused better health.

The RNS writer, Yonat Shimron, does not emphasize this important fact about correlations. Here’s a quote from the first sentence of the story:

“(RNS) The latest in a long line of studies, now numbering in the hundreds, if not thousands, shows that church attendance is good for your health.”

Later in the article, the author refers to various factors connected with church attendance that might be responsible for the supposed effect. It is good to consider various possibilities like prayer, social interaction, and so forth when trying to understand more about a phenomenon. But, there is no consideration given to the reasons why people who do not attend church may not have better health.

And more importantly, the author, like so many students and professionals, ignore the fact that the research is not an experiment aimed atdetermining cause-effect relationships.

Correlational research is useful. We can learn about relationships, which can lead to exploring additional connections. Some of the reliable relationships may turn out to be cause-effect relationships. The problem with the article, and other news stories derived from this and similar studies, is the lack of attention to the research methods involved.

One useful part of the article is the link to the original publication. I took a look at the original study. Do you see how they defined church goer? In one analysis, a church goer was someone who attended at least once a year. In another analysis, a churchgoer is someone who went at least once a week.

Another issue common to much research, including my own, is the reliance on self-report. When we are talking about health, self-report is a place to start, but we really need biological data before making health claims.

Shimron asks, “Should doctors prescribe church attendance?”

I say unto you, “maybe, but not for better physical health.”

Create better surveys and understand how to use surveys in experiments and correlational studies.

Creating Surveys

Create better surveys for work and school

Read FREE on Amazon Kindle Unlimited

DOWNLOAD today AMAZON

Related Post

Psychology Experiments

Connections and Links to Resources

My Page www.suttong.com

My Books AMAZON

FACEBOOK Geoff W. Sutton

TWITTER @Geoff.W.Sutton

LinkedIN Geoffrey Sutton PhD

Publications (many free downloads)

Academia Geoff W Sutton (PhD)

ResearchGate Geoffrey W Sutton (PhD)

9 Beliefs of Christian Counselors

Updated 26 Feb 2018 What Christian Counselors Believe, Value, and Practice Part I: Beliefs I once asked a conservative evangelical Christian Chaplain how he handled counseling when he was pretty sure a dying patient was not a Christian and, according to his tradition, would soon spend eternity in hell. He sincerely said he would have to think about that question. A female health care provider told me she switched jobs so she could work with children rather than seniors, because she believed that, unlike the elderly, children would go to heaven if they died. In this case, her Christian beliefs appeared to have a cause -effect influence on her career. Counselors normally focus on the needs of clients and help clients find solutions in a supportive setting. Theoretically, rapport ought to be enhanced when counselors and clients share common values and beliefs. Why ask what Christian Counselors Believe? The primary reason ...

EASTER: VARIATIONS IN BELIEF

Differences in Religious & Spiritual Beliefs Relevant to the Easter Story By Geoffrey W. Sutton, Ph.D. at suttong.com Like most Christians, my wife and I attend an Easter Service. And, a s usual, the media rise to the Spring occasion with Bible stories, comments from various religious leaders and a few atheists—just to keep things balanced. Other religions are on the back burner until Monday. So many statements of beliefs come from the Easter events. For now, here’s a sample of some core beliefs from various sources. God: 51% believe in God as in the Bible Statista (May, 2023) reported US belief "in God as described in holy scriptures" at 51%. Another 22% reported a belief in a higher power or spirit. Pew researchers from 2021 find 58% believe in God as described in the Bible and another 32% believe in a God or Higher Power. Belief in God is obviously a core belief. U.S. belief has declined to 58% having no doubt God exists and another 17% have do...

Doom and Gloom and Bad Actors

Sculpture at Terazin 2024 “Those Who Do Not Learn History Are Doomed To Repeat It.” George Santayana ***** A great quantity of information in the form of text, photographs, statues, films, drawings, and paintings portray and honour the lives of those who were victims of the Nazi’s murderous plan. The concentration camps do concentrate one’s focus on a particular era of terror. The evidence from the past 80 years suggests Santayana was right and wrong. In a sense, his statement was too general to be contradicted. For example, the specific conditions that generated and maintained the Nazi system of mass murder are unlikely to be replicated; however, some timeless characteristics of human nature persist. ***** I’m a psychologist and not a historian yet, I come away from recent visits to several Nazi terror sites with some impressions. 1. Religion supports dictators. Horrible leaders often have an amiable relationship with the larger religious groups who fail to dissuade th...

Geoff W. Sutton Blog

Search This Blog