 January 6, 1999
Survey says:
Faith matters
___ Churchgoers live longer. A 1998 study funded in part by the National Science Foundation showed that people who attend church weekly live an average of seven years longer than people who never  attend church. Researchers considered 2,016 people participating in a federal cancer risk survey who already had died. They found the life expectancy of people who reported they never attended church was 55.3 years beyond age 20, compared with 61.9 years for people who attended religious services weekly. Source: Robert Hummer and Christopher Ellison, University of Texas; Richard Rogers, University of Colorado at Boulder; Charles Nam, Florida State University.
___ Heart-changing prayer. A 1988 study of 393 patients admitted to the coronary care unit of a large San Francisco hospital found that those who received intercessory prayer, even without knowing they were being prayed for, fared far better than patients who were not prayed for. Participants were divided into two groups, unknown to them, with one group receiving intercessory prayers to the Judeo-Christian God and the other not. After 10 months, fewer of those in the intercessory prayer group had experienced congestive heart failure, cardiopulmonary arrest and pneumonia and had used less medication. Source: R.B. Byrd, Southern Medical Journal.
___Teen drug use. A 1986 study by Brigham Young University surveyed 16,130 seniors in 125 private and public high schools across the United States. Religiosity was the strongest and most consistent factor in determining whether or not students used drugs, outpacing even family backgrounds. Source Stephen Bahr, Brigham Young University; Sociological Perspectives.
___Living with leukemia. A 1969 study of 18 children with leukemia divided participants into two groups. Prayer groups at a Protestant church in Washington prayed daily for the children in one group but not for children in the other group. After 15 months, seven out of 10 children in the prayer group were alive, but only two of the eight in the other group were alive. Source: P.H. Collipp, Medical Times.
___Lower pressure at church. A 1989 study of men in rural Georgia evaluated blood pressure against church attendance and self-perceived importance of religion. Those who believed religion to be very important in their lives had lower blood pressures than those who did not find religion important. Even smokers benefited from church attendance, the study found. Source: David Larson, Journal of Religion and Health.
___Religion and heart surgery. A 1997 study of heart patients found those who gained strength or comfort from their religious beliefs were three times less likely to die after surgery than those who did not draw strength from their faith. Further, the more religious a person reported to be, the less likely he or she was to die after surgery. Of 37 patients who described themselves as ìdeeply religious,î none died. Source: T.E. Oxman, D.H. Freeman and E.D Manheimer, Psychosomatic Medicine.
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