VanderWeele Tyler J, Ouyang Suzanne T
Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
J Relig Health. 2025 Feb 27. doi: 10.1007/s10943-025-02266-x.
Evidence is presented that the protective relationships between religious participation and depression, suicide, and substance use are in fact causal. Such evidence comes from rigorous longitudinal studies with large sample size and control for confounding and baseline outcomes; from meta-analyses and systematic reviews of such studies; from robustness of associations to potential unmeasured confounding; and from quasi-experimental designs in the economics literature. The evidence for the associations with anxiety is less clear. The results have societal and public health implications with regard to the proportion of the rise in mental illness that might be attributable to declining religious participation. The results have individual and clinical implications with regard to ethically sensitive evidence-based approaches that might encourage service attendance for those who already positively identify with a religious tradition and encourage other forms of community participation for those who do not.
有证据表明，宗教参与与抑郁、自杀及物质使用之间的保护关系实际上是因果关系。此类证据来自样本量大且对混杂因素和基线结果进行控制的严格纵向研究；来自对此类研究的荟萃分析和系统评价；来自关联对潜在未测量混杂因素的稳健性；以及来自经济学文献中的准实验设计。与焦虑症关联的证据则不那么明确。这些结果对于精神疾病增加部分中可能归因于宗教参与度下降的比例具有社会和公共卫生方面的影响。这些结果对于符合伦理且基于证据的方法具有个体和临床方面的影响，这些方法可能会鼓励那些已经积极认同某宗教传统的人参加宗教活动，并鼓励那些不认同宗教传统的人参与其他形式的社区活动。
