Religion and Health: A Biopsychosocial Examination of Individual and Community Well-Being

Abstract

Historically religion has been a source of comfort for those suffering from disease. Past research shows that religion is multifaceted and has varying effects on mental and physical health outcomes. Here, we examine the connections between health and religion, drawing on the biopsychosocial model of health and the mediation model of health and religion. Our datasets come from a national religiously diverse sample of New Zealanders who responded to the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS) surveys between the Time 4 (2012) and Time 8 (2016) waves. Over the course of three chapters and four related articles, we report the associations of two aspects of religiosity (i.e. religious identification and church attendance) with various psychosocial factors related to individual and community health. Specifically, we examine (1) the effect of belief in a spirit or life force on emotional well-being; (2) religion and the diagnosis of high blood pressure; (3) emotional well-being in the chronically ill; and (4) the acceptance of Muslims in New Zealand. Our findings suggest that attending church is positively associated with improved health status, whereas religious identification is positively related to worse health status. Collectively, our results support the utility of the biopsychosocial model of health via their congruence with the psychosocial factors described by mediation model of health and religion.