The Effect of Prayer on Patients’ Health: Systematic Literature Review
Journal Title: Religions - Year 2016, Vol 7, Issue 1
Abstract
There is increasing interest regarding prayer in healthcare. Prayer is an activity related to spirituality and religion. Positive outcomes have been identified regarding spirituality in health. This study aims to investigate the effects on patients’ health of using prayer. A systematic literature review was conducted in May 2015 and updated in November 2015. Electronic and international databases were searched and the inclusion criteria were based on PICOS: (Population) patients of any age and any clinical situation, (Intervention) all types of prayer, (Comparison) ordinary care, (Outcomes) any health change, (Study type) randomized clinical trials. Neither timeframe nor limitation in language were considered. A total of 92 papers were identified and 12 were included in the review. Prayer was considered a positive factor in seven studies, and several positive effects of prayer on health were identified: reducing the anxiety of mothers of children with cancer; reducing the level of concern of the participants who believe in a solution to their problem; and providing for the improved physical functioning of patients who believe in prayer. Prayer is a non-pharmacological intervention and resource, and should be included in the nursing holistic care aimed at patients’ well-being.
Authors and Affiliations
Talita Prado Simão, Sílvia Caldeira and Emilia Campos de Carvalho
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP25508
- DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7010011
- Views 346
- Downloads 8
Glocalization of “Christian Social Responsibility”: The Contested Legacy of the Lausanne Movement among Neo-Evangelicals in South Korea
This paper examines the contested legacy of the First Lausanne Congress in South Korean neo-evangelical communities. In response to growing political and social conflicts in the Global South during the 1960s and 1970s,...
Introduction to the Special Issue: “The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World”, Religions 2016
In “The Wayfinders”, a Special Issue for the journal Religions, scholars explore the significance of the biblical wisdom literature for the current day. At the heart of these six articles lies the question: why does an...
Miracles, Media, Mezuzot: Storytelling among Chabad Hasidim
In 1994 the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, died leaving no successor. His group split into two groups: messianists who maintained that the Rebbe had not died and was Moshiach, the Jewish Messiah, and the non m...
Fighting Injustice and Intolerance: Re-Presentations of Race and Religion at the Muhammad Ali Center
This article explores the significance of the Muhammad Ali Center as a site where meanings associated with “race” and “religion” are constructed, contested and potentially transformed. The Muhammad Ali Center is examin...
“Our Country Is Destined to be the Great Nation of Futurity”: John L. O’Sullivan’s Manifest Destiny and Christian Nationalism, 1837–1846
As founding editor of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, John L. O’Sullivan (1813–1895) preached a particular form of Christian nationalism that centered on expansionist fever occurring during the 1830s...