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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Peter Baltrus, PhD, National Center For Primary Care, Morehouse School of Medicine, 720 Westview Ave, NCPC 315, Atlanta, GA 30310, 404-752-1180, pbaltrus@msm.edu, Kirstin Byrd, BS, Spelman College, 350 Spelman Lane, Atlanta, GA 30314, and Yong Liu, MS, Social Epidemiology Research Center, Morehouse School of Medicine, 720 Westview Ave, NCPC 315, Atlanta, GA 30310.

Background- Some studies have found that prayer and meditation have beneficial effects on health. However, most studies have used small samples or have been limited to a specific religious group. This study sought to examine the association between prayer/meditation and several health outcomes in a general population sample. Hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and self-rated health and were the outcomes examined. We hypothesized that engaging in prayer and meditation would be associated with better health outcomes. Methods-Data from a Regional Health Assesment Surveilance Study), a survey of a representative sample of African American and white adults residing in six counties in Georgia, were utilized. The study population was adults aged 45 years or older (n=923). Linear and logistic regression models, adjusted for age, gender, race, and education were used to examine the relationship between prayer and meditation frequency and the health outcomes. Results- Meditating seldom or never was associated with better outcomes than meditating daily. Cardiovascular Disease (OR=0.58; 95% CI=0.35-0.96), Diabetes (OR=.42; 95% CI=0.25-0.70), obesity (OR=0.60; 95% CI=0.40-0.91). Prayer was not significantly associated with any of the outcomes. Conclusion- Greater frequency of meditation was associated with worse health outcomes. One likely explanation is being diagnosed with a health condition leads one to engage in meditation as a coping strategy. Our hypothesis that more frequent prayer and meditation would be associated with better health was not supported by the data.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize that prayer was not found to be associated with various health outcomes
• Recognize that meditating more often was associated with worse health outcomes
• Recognize the limitations of cross-sectional epidemiologic studies particularly in this subject area

Keywords: Religion, Epidemiology

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation