Articlegold2015

Prayer or spiritual healing as adjuncts to conventional care: a cross sectional analysis of prevalence and characteristics of use among women

Angela Rao · David William Sibbritt · Jane Louise Phillips · Louise Hickman

23 citations0/0 files storedBMJ Open

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence and characteristics of users of prayer or spiritual healing among women. DESIGN AND SETTING: This cross sectional study was conducted as a part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH), a 20-year study that examines various factors affecting women's health and well-being. PARTICIPANTS: The sample used in the current study were women from the 1946-1951 cohort (n=9965) (59-64 years) who were surveyed in 2010. OUTCOME MEASURES: Use of prayer or spiritual healing; demographic factors and measures of health status. χ(2) Tests, analyses of variance (to determine associations) and a stepwise backward logistic regression model (for the most significant predictors) using a likelihood ratio test were used to determine the outcome measures. RESULTS: It is estimated that 26% of Australian women from the 1946-1951 cohort (aged 59-64 years) use prayer or spiritual healing on a regular basis. Women were significantly more likely to use prayer or spiritual healing if they were non-smokers, non-drinkers or low-risk drinkers, had symptoms of severe tiredness (OR 1.25; 95% CI 1.12 to 1.40), depression, (OR 1.30; 95% CI 1.11 to 1.53), anxiety (OR 1.33; 95% CI 1.15 to 1.53), diagnosed cancer (OR 1.84; 95% CI 1.28 to 2.65) or other major illnesses (OR 1.43; 95% CI 1.18 to 1.75) and used other complementary therapies. CONCLUSIONS: A significant proportion of adult women are using prayer or spiritual healing. Given that prayer or spiritual healing was significantly associated with health symptoms, chronic illnesses and positive health seeking behaviours, respect for prayer or spiritual healing practices is required within health care settings. Future research is recommended around specific populations using prayer or spiritual healing, reasons for their use and potential benefits on health related outcomes and general well-being.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 23 citations exist upstream.

References

1946Man's Search for Meaning 2003Effect of spiritual well-being on end-of-life despair in terminally-ill cancer patients 1999Women's Health Australia: Recruitment for a National Longitudinal Cohort Study 2004Religion, Spirituality, and Health in Medically Ill Hospitalized Older Patients 1998Religious attitudes and practices of hospitalized medically ill older adults 2011Spirituality, Religiosity, and Spiritual Pain in Advanced Cancer Patients 1993Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine 1998The Role of Private Prayer in Psychological Recovery Among Midlife and Aged Patients Following Cardiac Surgery

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.