Harvard researchers have linked spirituality to a healthier life and a longer lifespan

Spirituality is associated with better health outcomes and patient care.

According to a study by experts from Harvard School of Public Health And Brigham and Women’s Hospitalspirituality should be incorporated into the treatment of both serious illness and general health.

“This study represents the most rigorous and comprehensive systematic analysis of modern health and spirituality literature to date,” said Tracy Balboni, lead author and senior physician at the Dana-Farber / Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and professor of radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School. “Our findings indicate that attention to spirituality in serious illness and health should be a vital part of future whole person-centered care and the results should stimulate more national discussion and progress on how spirituality can be incorporated into this. kind of care. “

“Focusing on spirituality in health care means taking care of the whole person, not just their illness.”

“Spirituality is important to many patients when they think about their health,” said Tyler VanderWeele, John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Harvard Chan School.

The study, which was co-authored by Balboni, VanderWeele and senior author Howard Koh, Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership at Harvard Chan School, was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Balboni, VanderWeele and Koh are also co-chairs of the Interfaculty Initiative on Health, Spirituality, and Religion at Harvard University.

Spirituality is defined as “how individuals seek ultimate meaning, purpose, connection, value or transcendence,” according to the International Consensus Conference on Spiritual Care in Health Care. This may involve organized religion, but it also includes means of discovering the ultimate meaning through connections with family, community or nature.

Balboni, VanderWeele, Koh and colleagues evaluated and assessed the highest quality data on spirituality in serious illness and health published between January 2000 and April 2022 in their analysis. 371 of 8,946 publications dealing with serious illnesses met the study’s stringent inclusion requirements, as did 215 of 6,485 health outcome articles.

A Delphi group, an organized and interdisciplinary group of experts, then evaluated the strongest collective evidence and produced consensus implications for health and healthcare.

They noted that for healthy people, participation in the spiritual community, as exemplified by participation in religious service, is associated with healthier lives, including greater longevity, less depression and suicide, and less substance use. For many patients, spirituality is important and influences key disease outcomes, such as quality of life and medical care decisions. The implications of the consensus included the incorporation of spirituality considerations as part of patient-centered health care and increased awareness among physicians and health care professionals about the protective benefits of spiritual community participation.

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Riferimento: "Spirituality in Serious Illness and Health" di Tracy A. Balboni, MD, MPH, Tyler J. VanderWeele, Ph.D., Stephanie D. Doan-Soares, DrPH, Katelyn NG Long, DrPH, MSc, Betty R. Ferrell, Ph.D., RN, George Fitchett, DMin, Ph.D., Harold G. Koenig, MD, MHSc, Paul A. Bain, Ph.D., MLS, Christina Puchalski, MD, MS, Karen E. Steinhauser, Ph.D., Daniel P. Sulmasy, MD, Ph.D. e Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH, 12 luglio 2022, Journal of American Medical Association.
DOI: 10.1001/jama.2022.11086
Lo studio è stato finanziato dalla John Templeton Foundation.

Harvard researchers have linked spirituality to a healthier life and a longer lifespan – europeantimes.news