Why Religion and Spirituality Matter for Public Health, 1st ed. 2018
Evidence, Implications, and Resources
Religion, Spirituality and Health: A Social Scientific Approach Series, Vol. 2

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.

1. Elephant in the Room: Why Spirituality and Religion Matter for Public Health (Doug Oman).- 2. Reviewing Religion/Spirituality Evidence from a Public Health Perspective: Introduction (Doug Oman).- 3. Model of Individual Health Effects from Religion/Spirituality: Supporting Evidence (Doug Oman).- 4. Religious/Spiritual Effects on Physical Morbidity and Mortality  (Doug Oman).- 5. Social and Community-Level Factors in Health Effects from Religion/Spirituality (Doug Oman).- 6. Social Identity and Discrimination in Religious/Spiritual Influences on Health (Doug Oman).- 7. Environmental Health Sciences, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman).- 8. Infectious Diseases, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman).- 9. Public Health Nutrition, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman).- 10. Maternal/Child Health, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman).- 11. Health Policy and Management, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman).- 12. Health Education, Promotion, and Intervention: Relevance of Religion and Spirituality (Doug Oman).- 13. Mental Health, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman).- 14. Clinical Practice, Religion, and Spirituality (Doug Oman).- 15. Weighing the Evidence: What is Revealed by 100+ Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews of Religion/Spirituality and Health? (Doug Oman).- 16. Questions on Assessing the Evidence Linking Religion/Spirituality to Health (Doug Oman).- 17. Implications for Community Health Practitioners: Framing Religion and Spirituality within a Social Ecological Framework (Rabbi Nancy E. Epstein).- 18. Implications for Public Health Systems and Clinical Practitioners: Strengths of Congregations, Religious Health Assets and Leading Causes of Life (Teresa F. Cutts).- 19. Introduction: What Should Public Health Students Be Taught About Religion and Spirituality? (Doug Oman).- 20. Religion and Public Health at Emory University (Ellen Idler).- 21. The Initiative on Health, Religion and Spirituality at Harvard: From Research to Education (Tyler J. VanderWeele).- 22. An Evidence-Based Course at U.C. Berkeley on Religious and Spiritual Factors in Public Health (Doug Oman).- 23. The Boston University Experience: Religion, Ethics, and Public Health (Christina M.A. Gebel).- 24. Faith Matters: “HBHE 710: Religion, Spirituality and Health” at the University of Michigan (Linda M. Chatters).- 25. Incorporating Religion and Spirituality into Teaching and Practice: The Drexel School of Public Health Experience (Rabbi Nancy E. Epstein).- 26. Online Teaching of Public Health and Spirituality at University of Illinios: Chaplains for the Twenty-First Century (Kathryn Lyndes).- 27. International and Global Perspectives on Spirituality, Religion, and Public Health (Liz Grant).- 28. What’s Next?: Public Health and Spirituality (Doug Oman).