Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick, 100 Tucker Park Rd, Saint John, NB, E2K 5E2, Canada.
J Relig Health. 2022 Feb;61(1):415-432. doi: 10.1007/s10943-020-01169-3. Epub 2021 Jan 5.
An overlooked reason to study atheism and health is that it provides a reasonably strong test of the broader religion-health relationship. Using data from the 2011/2012 Canadian Community Health Survey (n > 8000) I explored the health differences between atheists and eight categories of religious identities (nonreligious, Anglican, Baptist, Christian, Protestant, Catholic, United Church, and All Others). Surprisingly, results showed no substantive differences between atheists and non-atheists for self-rated health, emotional well-being, and psychological well-being. In contrast, results showed substantive and consistent differences between atheists and non-atheists with respect to social well-being. Results appear to suggest that while religious groups report superior scores on health proxies relative to atheists, this does not translate into substantive health differences.
忽视研究无神论和健康的一个原因是，它为更广泛的宗教与健康关系提供了一个相当有力的检验。我使用了 2011/2012 年加拿大社区健康调查的数据（n > 8000），探讨了无神论者和八种宗教身份（无宗教信仰、英国圣公会、浸礼会、基督教、新教、天主教、联合教会和其他所有宗教）之间的健康差异。令人惊讶的是，结果表明无神论者和非无神论者在自评健康、情绪健康和心理幸福感方面没有实质性差异。相比之下，结果表明无神论者和非无神论者在社会幸福感方面存在实质性和一致性的差异。结果似乎表明，虽然宗教团体在健康指标上的得分相对于无神论者更高，但这并不转化为实质性的健康差异。
