I am grateful to Dr Andrew Clarke in last week’s Pulse for requesting the source of evidence on the influence of faith on patients’ health (‘Where is the evidence on religion?’).
Three American professors, under the leadership of Professor Harold Koenig, found many conditions studied were seen to improve with the influence of faith. Most of the rest of the conditions he studied showed no association, with only a small proportion showing negative results.
Since then, Koenig et al have discovered an exponential increase in papers and reviews (now 4,000) on the subject.
A second edition of The Handbook of Religion and Health by Koenig, King and Carson (ISBN: 978-0-19-533595-8) has been published this year.
