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Measuring Religiousness in Health Research: Review and Critique

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Abstract

Although existing measures of religiousness are sophisticated, no single approach has yet emerged as a standard. We review the measures of religiousness most commonly used in the religion and health literature with particular attention to their limitations, suggesting that vigilance is required to avoid over-generalization. After placing the development of these scales in historical context, we discuss measures of religious attendance, private religious practice, and intrinsic/extrinsic religious motivation. We also discuss measures of religious coping, wellbeing, belief, affiliation, maturity, history, and experience. We also address the current trend in favor of multi-dimensional and functional measures of religiousness. We conclude with a critique of the standard, “context-free” approach aimed at measuring “religiousness-in-general”, suggesting that future work might more fruitfully focus on developing ways to measure religiousness in specific, theologically relevant contexts.

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Notes

  1. At several points in this manuscript we reference Koenig et al.’s (2001) Handbook of Religion and Health to support broad claims regarding the available evidence in the literature on religion and health. The Handbook provides detailed summaries of hundreds of articles, and is a good place for anyone to start with an interest in a particular area of health research. It also provides comprehensive references for deeper reading of the primary sources.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Farr Curlin and Adam Cohen for helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this manuscript. Financial Disclosure: This work has been supported in part by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (JTF #2065). Proprietary Statement: The authors have no proprietary or financial interest in this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Daniel E. Hall

  2. Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Daniel E. Hall

  3. Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Keith G. Meador & Harold G. Koenig

  4. Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Keith G. Meador

  5. Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center, Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Harold G. Koenig

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  1. Daniel E. Hall
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  2. Keith G. Meador
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Correspondence to Daniel E. Hall.

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Hall, D.E., Meador, K.G. & Koenig, H.G. Measuring Religiousness in Health Research: Review and Critique. J Relig Health 47, 134–163 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-008-9165-2

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