title: A randomized clinical trial on the effects of remote intercessory prayer in the adverse outcomes of pregnancies.
abstract: The scope of this article was to investigate whether intercessory prayer (IP) influences the adverse outcomes of pregnancies. A double-blind, randomized clinical trial was conducted with 564 pregnant women attending a prenatal public health care service. The women were randomly assigned to an IP group or to a control group (n = 289 per group). They were simultaneously and randomly assigned to practice prayer off-site or not. The following parameters were evaluated: Apgar scores, type of delivery and birth weight. The mean age of the women was 25.1 years of age (± 7.4), and the average gestational age was 23.4 weeks (± 8.1). The average number of years of schooling for the women was 8.1 years (± 3.1). The women in the IP and control groups presented a similar number of adverse medical events with non-significant p. No significant differences were detected in the frequency of adverse outcomes in pregnant women who practiced IP and those in the control group.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Epidemiologia, Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense, Criciuma, SC, 88.806-000, Brazil. mir@unesc.net
authors.forename: Maria Inês
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: da Rosa
authors.forename: Fabio Rosa
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Bruno Rosa
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Luciana Carvalho
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: Angela Mendes
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bergamo
authors.forename: Napoleão Chiaramonte
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Lidia Rosi de Freitas
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Medeiros
authors.forename: Iara Denise Endruweit
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Battisti
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Azevedo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000523:psychology*; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome / Q000523:psychology*; D012067:Religion; D055815:Young Adult