Researchers examined the recovery process of senior women who had broken their hips and concluded "elderly women who were religiously committed were less depressed, had shorter hospital stays and could walk father at the time of their discharge than those who were not." This is why it is important for health professionals to explore and understand spirituality so that they can help their clients in the recuperation process. The nurse and patient go through the journey together, so what is good for the patient is good for the nurse. According to Raholm (as cited in Malinski 2002) "spirituality is a powerful part of life, it is the ultimate source of strength, and when sickness arises it is the strength that helps us get through it.".
There is an extensive amount of research done on the theory if spirituality and health are linked. On a particular website they found pleanty of facts agreeing with the theory. "Religious involvement greatly decreases drug use, delinquency, and premarital sex, and increases self-control for all age groups. In a 1985 study of girls, 9 to 17, less than 10 percent of those who attended religious services weekly reported drug or alcohol use, compared to 38 percent overall."(honors website.).
In another study conducted by John Hopkins University they studied 90,000 people and concluded that less than one monthly visit to church doubled or tripled the risk due of heart disease, emphysema, liver problems, suicide and rectal and colon cancer. Another succeeded study found that people who never attend church the death rate per year was 2600 per 100,00 people. For people who attended twice yearly it was 1640. For those attending mass once a week or more the death rate went down to an astonishing 1308. So in other words if you go to church once a week or more it will cut the death rate in half.
Although there is pleanty of resources to support the theory of spirituality and health being linked, there is little to go against it.