NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Although previous studies have found that prayer, meditation and other religious activities provide health benefits, two American researchers suggest that many such findings are inaccurate and largely due to faulty study methods.

"There is little evidence to support claims that health benefits derive from religious activity," Professors Richard P. Sloan and Emilia Bagiella, both of Columbia University in New York City, write in the March issue of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Sloan and Bagiella first investigated the claim that there are numerous studies showing a positive effect of religious involvement on health and found this claim to be incorrect.

They searched 266 medical studies about religion that were published in 2000 and found that only 42 (17%) concluded that religious activity brought about health benefits. Other studies focused on topics such as differences between denominations, the impact of health conditions on religion, or physician behavior, but did not address the effect of religious activity on health.

The investigators next evaluated two comprehensive study reviews, both of which cited great support for the positive effect of religious activity on health, in order to determine the quality of the studies included. Focusing on those studies that examined the relationship between religious activity and heart disease or high blood pressure, the researchers analyzed the studies to determine if any of the results could be used as a basis to recommend that patients supplement their medical treatment with religious activities.

Some studies included in the reviews had methodological problems, while others were misrepresented, Sloan and Bagiella report. Only a few had results "that could reasonably be called positive," they explain.

For example, in one study researchers reported that 52 male college students who were taught Buddhist meditation exhibited lower blood pressures at the 3- and 6-week follow-ups than they did at the start of the study. The 30 students in the comparison group, who were not taught Buddhist meditation, reportedly had no similar decrease in blood pressure.

Sloan and Bagiella point out, however, that the study participants were not randomly assigned to the meditation or comparison groups, a practice accepted in the scientific field as necessary for unbiased results. Rather, the meditation group volunteered to spend 2 months of their summer vacation with Buddhist monks, while the comparison group stayed home.

The study was therefore "hopelessly confounded with respect to drawing conclusions about the health benefits of a religious practice," Sloan and Bagiella write.

Another study described a reportedly successful intervention for patients who had undergone coronary artery surgery. The intervention consisted of health education, breathing exercises, deep muscle relaxation, biofeedback and yoga.

"It was impossible to attribute the benefits of...(the intervention) to any one component," the authors state.

The study providing the strongest evidence that religious activity benefited health involved a group of African Americans who exhibited significantly greater decreases in blood pressure upon engaging in transcendental meditation, as opposed to a progressive relaxation intervention, according to Sloan and Bagiella.

In light of the overall findings, the researchers conclude that "there is little empirical basis for assertions that religious involvement or activity is associated with beneficial health outcomes."

Further, though the literature review was restricted to studies of patients with heart disease and high blood pressure, Sloan and Bagiella write that they "have no reason to believe that the literature in general is any more supportive of claims of benefits of religious involvement for other health outcomes."

SOURCE: Annals of Behavioral Medicine 2002;24:14-21.

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