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Ying Chen, Tyler J VanderWeele, Chen and VanderWeele Respond to “Religion, Spirituality, and Health”, American Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 189, Issue 8, August 2020, Pages 759–760, https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwaa021
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Empirical evidence on religion as a powerful social factor associated with population health is now quite strong, and evidence has continued to increase that at least some of this is probably causal (1, 2). As Ransome proposed in his commentary (3), it may be time to move a step further and study broader questions, such as why religion affects health, how contextual factors shape religion-health dynamics, and how the field of epidemiology could continue contributing to these queries.
While interest in contextual characteristics of religion has grown, there remain many important yet unresolved questions regarding how individual-level religious participation shapes health. For instance, we have not fully understood why attending religious services often shows stronger health associations than secular forms of community participation (1). Such knowledge could be important in understanding whether it might be possible to utilize various “active ingredients” of religious participation to reach a broader targeted population in public health practice. In reaching for these goals, collaborative efforts from across disciplines have been particularly helpful. For instance, epidemiologic studies have shed light on potential psychosocial and behavioral pathways between religion and health (4, 5) and have helped dissect the experience of service attendance into measurable social, emotional, and cognitive components (6); neuroscience studies have provided insights on potential neurobiological mechanisms underlying the religion-health association (7); and psychologists have developed theoretical models and provided experimental evidence for the health effects of forgiveness—a religiously grounded concept, but one which could be an intervention target for secular populations as well (8, 9). To reach an increasingly nuanced understanding of religion-health dynamics, such interdisciplinary collaborations will continue to be essential.
