What is the role of religion in public health research?
Whatever your response, I offer it as an important question to consider for both public health research and practice. Nearly 84% of the world’s population is religiously affiliated, including nearly 70% of the U.S. population. In spite of trends indicating secularization of the U.S., over 65% of Americans considered religion to be very or somewhat important in their lives as of 2021, and the global landscape is becoming increasingly religious. Empirical studies have also demonstrated the largely positive relationship between religion and health, while faith-based healthcare has been proposed as a unique way of addressing health disparities.
The implications of religion for public health show up in many forms, including individually-held beliefs, impacts on cultural practices, social support of religious communities, and institutional influences on policies and social norms. Religious leaders play key roles in their congregations and communities, the same individuals who can both champion and discourage public health efforts affecting health disparities. As a result, religious beliefs and faith systems can powerfully influence how people view, interpret, and pursue health.
However, the intersection of religion and public health is not commonly addressed in community- and population-level research and interventions. While public health researchers and practitioners are typically cognizant of racism, structural inequities, access to education, food, and healthcare, and environmental exposures as social determinants of health, how many would readily add religion as part of that list? This is ironic, as much of the public health movement in the U.S. historically emerged in the context of religious beliefs and faith-based charity.
Though scholarship continues to build at the intersection of religion and public health, there are still many gaps in research. Encouragingly, the Public Health, Religion, and Spirituality Network seeks to address this gap by bringing together scholars and practitioners who call for the greater inclusion of religion in population-level health research. One way I personally contribute to scholarship in this area is by focusing my research on how Korean American church communities view and navigate mental health services.
In a time when local, national, and global situations force us to wrestle with many threats to health, I hope this question can encourage other public health researchers and practitioners to seriously consider how to incorporate the religious nature of global populations in our work to improve the public’s health.
