IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0186539.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Complementary religious and spiritual interventions in physical health and quality of life: A systematic review of randomized controlled clinical trials

Author

Listed:
  • Juliane Piasseschi de Bernardin Gonçalves
  • Giancarlo Lucchetti
  • Paulo Rossi Menezes
  • Homero Vallada

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether religious and spiritual interventions (RSIs) can promote physical health and quality of life in individuals. Methods: The following databases were used to conduct a systematic review: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane, and Scielo. Randomized controlled trials that evaluated RSIs regarding physical health outcomes and/or quality of life in English, Spanish or Portuguese were included. RSI protocols performed at a distance (i.e. intercessory prayer) or for psychiatric disorders were excluded. This study consisted of two phases: (a) reading titles and abstracts, and (b) assessing the full articles and their methodological quality using the Cochrane Back Review Group scale. Results: In total, 7,070 articles were identified in the search, but 6884 were excluded in phase 1 because they were off topic or repeated in databases. Among the 186 articles included in phase 2, 140 were excluded because they did not fit the inclusion criteria and 16 did not have adequate randomization process. Thus, a final selection of 30 articles remained. The participants of the selected studies were classified in three groups: chronic patients (e.g., cancer, obesity, pain), healthy individuals and healthcare professionals. The outcomes assessed included quality of life, physical activity, pain, cardiac outcomes, promotion of health behaviors, clinical practice of healthcare professionals and satisfaction with protocols. The divergence concerning scales and protocols proposed did not allow a meta-analysis. RSIs as a psychotherapy approach were performed in 40% of the studies, and the control group was more likely to use an educational intervention (56.7%). The results revealed small effect sizes favoring RSIs in quality of life and pain outcomes and very small effects sizes in physical activity, promotion of health behaviors and clinical practice of health professionals compared with other complementary strategies. Other outcomes, such as cardiac measures and satisfaction with the protocols, revealed no evidence for RSIs. Regarding the quality of the selected articles according to the Cochrane Back Review Group Scale, the average score was 6.83 (SD = 9.08) on a scale of 11, demonstrating robustness in the studies. Conclusion: Clinical trials on RSIs demonstrated that they had small benefits compared with other complementary health therapies by reducing pain and weight, improving quality of life and promoting health behaviors. The lack of clinical trials that included biological outcomes and the diversity of approaches indicate a need for more studies to understand the possible mechanisms of action of RSIs and their roles in health care.

Suggested Citation

  • Juliane Piasseschi de Bernardin Gonçalves & Giancarlo Lucchetti & Paulo Rossi Menezes & Homero Vallada, 2017. "Complementary religious and spiritual interventions in physical health and quality of life: A systematic review of randomized controlled clinical trials," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0186539
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186539
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0186539
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0186539&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0186539?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alessandro Liberati & Douglas G Altman & Jennifer Tetzlaff & Cynthia Mulrow & Peter C Gøtzsche & John P A Ioannidis & Mike Clarke & P J Devereaux & Jos Kleijnen & David Moher, 2009. "The PRISMA Statement for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Studies That Evaluate Health Care Interventions: Explanation and Elaboration," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(7), pages 1-28, July.
    2. Kenneth F Schulz & Douglas G Altman & David Moher & for the CONSORT Group, 2010. "CONSORT 2010 Statement: Updated Guidelines for Reporting Parallel Group Randomised Trials," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(3), pages 1-7, March.
    3. James Larson, 1996. "The World Health Organization's definition of health: Social versus spiritual health," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 181-192, June.
    4. Holger Cramer & Romy Lauche & Hoda Azizi & Gustav Dobos & Jost Langhorst, 2014. "Yoga for Multiple Sclerosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-11, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Victor Mwanamwambwa, 2023. "The Relationship between Religion, Spirituality and Mental Health in Rwandan Refugees: A Cross-Sectional Study," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(2), pages 111-121, February.
    2. Yiyi Chen & Jiaqi Lu & Canghai Guan & Shiyang Zhang & Spencer De Li, 2022. "In the Shadow of the Casinos: The Relationship between Religion and Health in Macau," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Marcelo Borges & Giancarlo Lucchetti & Frederico C. Leão & Homero Vallada & Mario F. P. Peres, 2021. "Religious Affiliations Influence Health-Related and General Decision Making: A Brazilian Nationwide Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-9, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Su Keng Tan & Wai Keung Leung & Alexander Tin Hong Tang & Roger A Zwahlen, 2017. "Effects of mandibular setback with or without maxillary advancement osteotomies on pharyngeal airways: An overview of systematic reviews," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-20, October.
    2. Natalia Stanulewicz & Emily Knox & Melanie Narayanasamy & Noureen Shivji & Kamlesh Khunti & Holly Blake, 2019. "Effectiveness of Lifestyle Health Promotion Interventions for Nurses: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-36, December.
    3. João Carlos Belloti & Aldo Okamura & Jordana Scheeren & Flávio Faloppa & Vinícius Ynoe de Moraes, 2019. "A systematic review of the quality of distal radius systematic reviews: Methodology and reporting assessment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, January.
    4. Daisuke Kato & Yuki Kataoka & Erfen Gustiawan Suwangto & Makoto Kaneko & Hideki Wakabayashi & Daisuke Son & Ichiro Kawachi, 2020. "Reporting Guidelines for Community-Based Participatory Research Did Not Improve the Reporting Quality of Published Studies: A Systematic Review of Studies on Smoking Cessation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-9, May.
    5. Diane Paulsell & Jaime Thomas & Shannon Monahan & Neil S. Seftor, 2017. "A Trusted Source of Information," Evaluation Review, , vol. 41(1), pages 50-77, February.
    6. Ramya Ramamoorthi & Daniel Gahreman & Timothy Skinner & Simon Moss, 2019. "The effect of yoga practice on glycemic control and other health parameters in the prediabetic state: A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, October.
    7. Laura Pradal-Cano & Carolina Lozano-Ruiz & José Juan Pereyra-Rodríguez & Francesc Saigí-Rubió & Anna Bach-Faig & Laura Esquius & F. Xavier Medina & Alicia Aguilar-Martínez, 2020. "Using Mobile Applications to Increase Physical Activity: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-17, November.
    8. Lucy Turner & James Galipeau & Chantelle Garritty & Eric Manheimer & L Susan Wieland & Fatemeh Yazdi & David Moher, 2013. "An Evaluation of Epidemiological and Reporting Characteristics of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Systematic Reviews (SRs)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, January.
    9. Rosanna Nagtegaal & Lars Tummers & Mirko Noordegraaf & Victor Bekkers, 2019. "Nudging healthcare professionals towards evidence-based medicine: A systematic scoping review," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 2(2).
    10. Nicolaas Martens & Marianne Destoop & Geert Dom, 2021. "Organization of Community Mental Health Services for Persons with a Severe Mental Illness and Comorbid Somatic Conditions: A Systematic Review on Somatic Outcomes and Health Related Quality of Life," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-19, January.
    11. Kun-ming Tao & Xiao-qian Li & Qing-hui Zhou & David Moher & Chang-quan Ling & Wei-feng Yu, 2011. "From QUOROM to PRISMA: A Survey of High-Impact Medical Journals' Instructions to Authors and a Review of Systematic Reviews in Anesthesia Literature," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(11), pages 1-5, November.
    12. Nahara Anani Martínez-González & Ryan Tandjung & Sima Djalali & Flore Huber-Geismann & Stefan Markun & Thomas Rosemann, 2014. "Effects of Physician-Nurse Substitution on Clinical Parameters: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(2), pages 1-11, February.
    13. Jian Zhang & Xuena Zhang & Hui Wang & Haibin Zhou & Tian Tian & Anshi Wu, 2017. "Dexmedetomidine as a neuraxial adjuvant for prevention of perioperative shivering: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-17, August.
    14. Danran Bu & Pak-Kwong Chung & Chun-Qing Zhang & Jingdong Liu & Xiang Wang, 2020. "Mental Health Literacy Intervention on Help-Seeking in Athletes: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-17, October.
    15. Elizabeth T Cafiero-Fonseca & Andrew Stawasz & Sydney T Johnson & Reiko Sato & David E Bloom, 2017. "The full benefits of adult pneumococcal vaccination: A systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-23, October.
    16. Ludoviko Zirimenya & Fatima Mahmud-Ajeigbe & Ruth McQuillan & You Li, 2020. "A systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the association between urogenital schistosomiasis and HIV/AIDS infection," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(6), pages 1-13, June.
    17. Michael J. Fell & Alexandra Schneiders & David Shipworth, 2019. "Consumer Demand for Blockchain-Enabled Peer-to-Peer Electricity Trading in the United Kingdom: An Online Survey Experiment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-25, October.
    18. Trang Nguyen & Sara Holton & Thach Tran & Jane Fisher, 2019. "Informal mental health interventions for people with severe mental illness in low and lower middle-income countries: A systematic review of effectiveness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(3), pages 194-206, May.
    19. Natalya Ivanova & Ekaterina Zolotova, 2023. "Landolt Indicator Values in Modern Research: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-22, June.
    20. Vecchio, Riccardo & Caso, Gerarda & Cembalo, Luigi & Borrello, Massimiliano, 2020. "Is respondents’ inattention in online surveys a major issue for research?," Economia agro-alimentare / Food Economy, Italian Society of Agri-food Economics/Società Italiana di Economia Agro-Alimentare (SIEA), vol. 22(1), March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0186539. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.