title: Religious beliefs shorten hospital stays? Psychology works in mysterious ways: comment on Contrada et al. (2004).
abstract: A study by R. J. Contrada et al. (2004; see record 2004-13299-001) suggested that religious involvement affects recovery from coronary artery bypass graft surgery. This finding makes a significant contribution to the growing literature on the role of religion in health and illness, yet it is unlikely to have a comparable impact on coronary artery bypass graft surgery research. Why? What determines the importance of psychosocial predictors of medical outcomes? How can health psychologists increase the impact of biopsychosocial research?
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63108, USA. freedlak@bmc.wustl.edu
authors.forename: Kenneth E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Freedland
mesh_terms: D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012067:Religion