Abstract
The role of religion for supporting of physical health is a popular and debatable topic. This topic can be considered from two sides – the impact of health condition on the acceptance of religious faith and the strength of its manifestation, and the possible impact of religious affiliation on the health. The analyses of the interrelation between religion and physical and mental health was made in many publications, but there was no such a publication as for Ukraine. We used here the data from the longitudal sociological survey, which shows that some indicators of health are worse among religious Ukrainians and better among non-religious. Namely religious people gave worse rate for their health (but such correlation is fair only in the age group of 18-29 years old), also religious people have a worse body mass index (correlation is fair for peoples over 30 years old). At the same time this correlation is rather modest. For other indicators (disability level and chronic diseases level) there are no differences between religious and non-religious people. The last can be interpreted in two ways: as a negative impact of religious affiliation on health, or as a greater propensity for religious beliefs of less healthy people. But in any case both the first and the second impacts are obviously quite limited. Such a state is probably determined by the superficiality of the religiosity of the population of Ukraine, and reflects the limited role of religion both in the everyday life of the broad masses of believers and at the level of society as a whole.
Recommended Citation
Parashchevin, Maksym
(2021)
"Interrelation of Religiousity and Physical Health Condition: Ukranian Case,"
Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 41
:
Iss.
1
, Article 10.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol41/iss1/10