Faith Really Does Heal: What the Studies Reveal About Believers

Five Months of Extra Life: What a Harvard Study Found About Church Attendance

In May 2016, researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published a result that made headlines. Among tens of thousands of American women followed for two decades, those who attended religious services more than once a week were about a third less likely to die during the study period than women who never attended. The researchers estimated that this corresponded to roughly five extra months of life.

It is one of the best-known findings in a growing body of research on religion and health, and it is a natural source of encouragement for people of faith.

This article’s thesis is that regular participation in a faith community is associated, in carefully conducted studies, with better health outcomes, and that believers have good reason to see this as consistent with the biblical picture of a community that cares for body and soul. The word that matters most in that sentence is “associated.” The studies show a pattern. They do not by themselves prove that faith causes the benefit, and they do not show that a person without faith is worse off.