Does prayer help against illness and hospitalization?

Prayer can be a way to find comfort, strength and hope during times of illness and hospitalization. However, there is no scientific evidence that prayer can prevent illness or shorten the length of hospitalization.

Praying (for others) has been a common response to illness for millennia, but it has received little scientific attention. The positive findings of an earlier study were never confirmed.

A US study investigated the extent to which remote prayer for hospitalized cardiac patients could reduce overall adverse events and length of stay.

Nearly 1,000 patients were randomized at the time of admission to receive remote prayer or not. The first names of patients in the prayer group were passed on to a team of external intercessors who prayed for them daily for four weeks.

Compared to the usual care group, the prayer group had no difference in length of hospital stay.

Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/485161

Source: https://www.bmj.com/content/323/7327/1450.long

Author: Prof. Dr. Dirk Devroey - Latest update: 2024-10-10 - Copyright: Clinifacts 2024