What Research Reveals About Faith, Illness, and Care
Research shows that serious illness affects the body, mind, relationships, and spirit.
For more than two decades, Tracy and Michael Balboni have contributed to a growing body of research exploring how faith, spirituality, and community shape the experience of serious illness. The studies featured here—along with the work of many outstanding colleagues around the world—help illuminate the role of spiritual care in health, caregiving, and end-of-life care.
Why Spiritual Care Belongs in Serious Illness
This landmark review examined more than two decades of research on spirituality, serious illness, and health. After evaluating hundreds of high-quality studies, an expert panel concluded that spiritual concerns are common among people facing serious illness and are closely connected to quality of life, medical decision-making, and overall well-being. The findings support making spiritual care a routine part of compassionate, whole-person healthcare and ensuring that patients have access to trained spiritual care providers when needed.
Why This Matters
Serious illness affects more than the body. Patients often wrestle with questions of meaning, hope, faith, and purpose. This research shows that addressing these spiritual needs is an important part of caring for the whole person.
Published in JAMA, 2022.
The Important Role of Churches in Serious Illness
This study examined how spiritual support from churches and religious communities influences medical care near the end of life. Researchers found that patients who felt well supported by their faith communities often pursued more intensive medical treatment near death and were less likely to receive hospice care. However, when spiritual support from churches was combined with spiritual care from healthcare teams and honest conversations about end-of-life wishes, patients were more likely to choose care focused on comfort, peace, and quality of life.
Why This Matters
Faith communities play an important role in supporting people facing serious illness. This study suggests that churches, chaplains, and healthcare professionals can best serve patients when they work together to provide both spiritual support and thoughtful guidance.
Published in JAMA Internal Medicine, 2013
How Spiritual Care Shapes Care at Life's End
This study explored whether support for patients' spiritual needs affects their experience near the end of life. Researchers found that patients whose spiritual concerns were addressed by healthcare teams were more likely to receive hospice care and reported a better quality of life in their final days. Among patients who relied heavily on faith when facing illness, spiritual support was also associated with fewer aggressive medical interventions near death. The findings suggest that spiritual care can play an important role in helping patients navigate serious illness with greater peace and support.
Why This Matters
Patients facing serious illness often have spiritual questions and concerns that are just as important as their physical symptoms. This study suggests that when healthcare teams address those needs, patients may experience greater comfort, support, and quality of life near the end of life.
Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2010
Why Pastors Need Support for End-of-Life Conversations
This national study looked at how clergy beliefs shape conversations about end-of-life medical care. Researchers found that many clergy hold strong beliefs about miracles, the sanctity of life, divine control, and suffering. These beliefs can offer deep comfort, but they may also make it harder to talk openly about hospice, stopping treatment, or preparing for death. Clergy with less medical knowledge were also less likely to have some of these conversations. The study suggests that pastors and faith leaders need better education and support so they can help congregants make faithful, informed decisions during serious illness.
Why This Matters
Many people turn to pastors when facing difficult medical decisions. When clergy are prepared for these conversations, they can help families hold together faith, hope, medical reality, and compassionate care.
Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 2017
Why Spiritual Care Is Often Missing
This study asked patients with advanced cancer, nurses, and physicians about spiritual care near the end of life. Most patients said spiritual care was an important part of cancer care, and most nurses and physicians agreed it should be offered at least sometimes. Yet most patients had never received spiritual care from their oncology team. The strongest factor linked to whether clinicians provided spiritual care was training. Most nurses and physicians had not been trained in how to address patients’ spiritual needs.
Why This Matters
Spiritual care is often missing not because patients do not want it or clinicians do not value it, but because clinicians have not been trained to provide it. Better training can help healthcare teams care for the whole person.
Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2013
When Prayer Belongs in Patient Care
This study asked patients with advanced cancer, nurses, and physicians about prayer between patients and healthcare professionals. Most patients, nurses, and physicians said prayer could be appropriate in some situations, especially when it is welcomed by the patient and handled with respect. Many patients said prayer would feel spiritually supportive. At the same time, participants recognized that prayer is not always appropriate and must be guided by the patient’s needs, beliefs, and wishes.
Why This Matters
Prayer can be meaningful for some patients facing serious illness, but it must never be forced or assumed. This study points toward spiritual care that is respectful, patient-centered, and attentive to each person’s faith and boundaries.
Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 2011
Serious Illness as a Spiritual Experience
These studies explored how faith and spirituality shape the experience of serious illness. Researchers found that most patients with advanced cancer described spiritual concerns as an important part of their illness journey. Common themes included coping, prayer and religious practices, beliefs about God, personal transformation, and support from faith communities. The research also found that many patients hold religious beliefs that influence how they understand illness, death, and medical decisions near the end of life. These beliefs were common and often shaped how patients approached treatment and their hopes for the future.
Why This Matters
Serious illness raises questions that medicine alone cannot answer. Understanding the spiritual beliefs, concerns, and sources of hope that matter to patients can help families, clergy, and healthcare professionals provide more compassionate and person-centered care.
Journal of Palliative Medicine, 2010
Cancer, 2019