Health Indicators in our Region

A recent report by a collaboration of several groups. Xavier University, The Health Foundation and The United Way. Go to this link for the report.

The report is really an overview of health statistics. Some of the data reveal how many people live and act in ways that are deemed "unhealthy" and other data is simply information on population and other demographics.

One of the things that caught my eye was the lack of any mention of spiritual factors. I am surprised and disappointed because Xavier is a Jesuit University that advertises itself training nurses as "Holistic practices including those coming from a Jesuit Catholic tradition. In this report, nothing would indicate that religious practices impacts our individual and community health in any way.

Several years ago Redbook Magazine did a research study on marital satisfaction. One of the main indicators of satisfaction was the couple's sexual intimacy. On a hunch, the statistician included a few questions about religious practices. To their shock and surprise they discovered that religious couples were more sexually active than those who were not religious.

If that is not enough, they found a powerful correlation between the amount of a couples religious activities, sexual activity, and sexual happiness and marital satisfaction. This was enough to make the face of Redbook really red! Those very sophisticated editors and writers in New York who had long dismissed religious persons as prudes who hate sex faced a dilemma. How do we report these facts? They fly in the face of our prejudices and beliefs but they did come out of the research. Are we going to honestly report the facts or cover them up.

Obviously they reported the facts or I would not know what they found it. However, they failed to expand on the facts with any kind of explanation or elaboration.

The data that looks at habits that correlate healthy lives always includes religious practices. The more religious we are the healthier we are, the longer we live and the better we act. Not that religious people are perfect. We are not and that fact makes us healthier. We who believe in a merciful, gracious, loving God are healthier mentally, socially, physically and relationally.

So, why are religious factors not even included in the report? Why would Jesuit University that markets itself as a "Holistic Educational Institution" leave holistic spiritual considerations out?