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Reliance on God’s Help as a Measure of Intrinsic Religiosity in Healthy Elderly and Patients with Chronic Diseases. Correlations with Health-Related Quality of Life?

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Abstract

Within the context of coping, we analyze whether Reliance on God’s Help, as a measure of intrinsic religiosity, is associated specifically with SF-12’s health-related quality of life. Data of 5,248 individuals (63.1 ± 10.6 years; 14% chronic diseases, 16% cancer, 8% had experienced acute diseases, and 62% healthy elderly as a control group) were enrolled. Although about half of the individuals had a strong belief that God will help and prayed to become healthy again, Reliance on God’s Help was not generally associated with better physical or mental health-related quality of life. Just in distinct subgroups we found some marginal associations. Regression analyses confirmed that physical or mental health were not among the predictors of Reliance on God’s Help. Nevertheless, intrinsic religiosity was utilized by several individuals, particularly by patients with higher age and cancer. It should be regarded as a resource to cope (meaning-focused coping) rather than an independent contributor to health-related quality of life.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Die Continentale Versicherung for their support, to Ralf-Achim Grünther (Orthopaedic Clinic in Bad Bocklet) for encouraging his patients to fill the questionnaires, and to Judith M. Fouladbakhsh (Wayne State University, Detroit) for her comments and advises. The authors disclose any potential conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Medical Theory and Complementary Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Witten/Herdecke, Gerhard-Kienle-Weg 4, 58313, Herdecke, Germany

    Arndt Büssing, Julia Fischer, Thomas Ostermann & Peter F. Matthiessen

  2. Interdisciplinary Center of Health Care Research, University Witten/Herdecke, Herdecke, Germany

    Arndt Büssing & Thomas Ostermann

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  1. Arndt Büssing
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  2. Julia Fischer
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  3. Thomas Ostermann
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  4. Peter F. Matthiessen
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Correspondence to Arndt Büssing.

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Büssing, A., Fischer, J., Ostermann, T. et al. Reliance on God’s Help as a Measure of Intrinsic Religiosity in Healthy Elderly and Patients with Chronic Diseases. Correlations with Health-Related Quality of Life?. Applied Research Quality Life 4, 77–90 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-009-9068-8

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