Why Religion and Spirituality Matter for Public Health

Description

This volume reviews the exploding religion/spirituality (R/S) and health literature from a population health perspective. It emphasizes the distinctive Public Health concern for promoting health and preventing disease in societies, nations, and communities, as well as individuals. Part I offers a rigorous review of mainstream biomedical and social scientific theory and evidence on R/S-health relations. Addressing key gaps in previous literature, it reviews evidence from a population health viewpoint, surveying pertinent findings and theories from the perspective of Public Health subfields that range from Environmental Health Sciences to Public Health Nutrition to Health Policy & Management and Public Health Education. In Part II, practitioners describe in detail how attending to R/S factors enhances the work of clinicians and community health practitioners. R/S provides an additional set of concepts and tools to address opportunities and challenges ranging from behavior and institutional change to education, policy, and advocacy. Part III empowers educators, analyzing pedagogical needs and offering diverse short chapters by faculty who teach R/S-health connections in many nationally top-ranked Schools of Public Health. International and global perspectives are highlighted in a concluding chapter and many places throughout the volume. This book addresses a pressing need for Public Health research, practice and teaching: A substantial evidence base now links religious and spiritual (R/S) factors to health. In the past 20 years, over 100 systematic reviews and 30 meta-analyses on R/S-health were published in refereed journals. But despite this explosion of interest, R/S factors remain neglected in Public Health teaching and research. Public Health lags behind related fields such as medicine, psychology, and nursing, where R/S factors receive more attention. This book can help Public Health catch up. It offers abundant key resources to empower public health professionals, instructors, and students to address R/S, serving at once as a course text, a field manual and a research handbook. Front Matter ....Pages i-xviii Elephant in the Room: Why Spirituality and Religion Matter for Public Health (Doug Oman)....Pages 1-16 Front Matter ....Pages 17-17 Reviewing Religion/Spirituality Evidence from a Public Health Perspective: Introduction (Doug Oman)....Pages 19-26 Model of Individual Health Effects from Religion/Spirituality: Supporting Evidence (Doug Oman)....Pages 27-63 Religious/Spiritual Effects on Physical Morbidity and Mortality (Doug Oman)....Pages 65-79 Social and Community-Level Factors in Health Effects from Religion/Spirituality (Doug Oman, S. Leonard Syme)....Pages 81-110 Social Identity and Discrimination in Religious/Spiritual Influences on Health (Doug Oman, Amani M. Nuru-Jeter)....Pages 111-137 Environmental Health Sciences, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman, Rachel Morello-Frosch)....Pages 139-152 Infectious Diseases, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman, Lee W. Riley)....Pages 153-163 Public Health Nutrition, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman)....Pages 165-173 Maternal/Child Health, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman)....Pages 175-189 Health Policy and Management, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman, Timothy T. Brown)....Pages 191-210 Public Health Education, Promotion, and Intervention: Relevance of Religion and Spirituality (Doug Oman, Linda Neuhauser)....Pages 211-223 Mental Health, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman, David Lukoff)....Pages 225-243 Clinical Practice, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman)....Pages 245-260 Weighing the Evidence: What Is Revealed by 100+ Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews of Religion/Spirituality and Health? (Doug Oman, S. Leonard Syme)....Pages 261-281 Questions on Assessing the Evidence Linking Religion/Spirituality to Health (Doug Oman)....Pages 283-302 Front Matter ....Pages 303-303 Implications for Community Health Practitioners: Framing Religion and Spirituality Within a Social Ecological Framework (Rabbi Nancy E. Epstein)....Pages 305-322 Implications for Public Health Systems and Clinical Practitioners: Strengths of Congregations, Religious Health Assets and Leading Causes of Life (Teresa F. Cutts, Gary R. Gunderson)....Pages 323-340 Front Matter ....Pages 341-341 Introduction: What Should Public Health Students Be Taught About Religion and Spirituality? (Doug Oman)....Pages 343-355 Religion and Public Health at Emory University (Ellen Idler, Mimi Kiser)....Pages 357-370 The Initiative on Health, Religion and Spirituality at Harvard: From Research to Education (Tyler J. VanderWeele, Michael J. Balboni, Tracy A. Balboni)....Pages 371-382 An Evidence-Based Course at U.C. Berkeley on Religious and Spiritual Factors in Public Health (Doug Oman)....Pages 383-395 The Boston University Experience: Religion, Ethics, and Public Health (Christina M. A. Gebel, Katelyn N. G. Long, Michael A. Grodin)....Pages 397-408 Faith Matters: “HBHE 710: Religion, Spirituality and Health” at the University of Michigan (Linda M. Chatters)....Pages 409-420 Incorporating Religion and Spirituality into Teaching and Practice: The Drexel School of Public Health Experience (Rabbi Nancy E. Epstein)....Pages 421-433 Online Teaching of Public Health and Spirituality at University of Illinois: Chaplains for the Twenty-First Century (Kathryn Lyndes, Wendy Cadge, George Fitchett)....Pages 435-444 Front Matter ....Pages 445-445 International and Global Perspectives on Spirituality, Religion, and Public Health (Liz Grant, Doug Oman)....Pages 447-462 What’s Next?: Public Health and Spirituality (Doug Oman)....Pages 463-468 Back Matter ....Pages 469-476