Godless in the Great White North: Assessing the Health of Canadian Atheists Using Data from the 2011/2012 Canadian Community Health Survey

An overlooked reason to study atheism and health is that it provides a reasonably strong test of the broader religion-health relationship. Using data from the 2011/2012 Canadian Community Health Survey ( n  > 8000) I explored the health differences between atheists and eight categories of religio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and health 2022-02, Vol.61 (1), p.415-432
Main Author: Speed, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging
Atheism
Canada
Catholicism
Clinical Psychology
Health Surveys
Humans
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Original Paper
Public Health
Religion
Religious Studies
Surveys and Questionnaires
Well being
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Summary:An overlooked reason to study atheism and health is that it provides a reasonably strong test of the broader religion-health relationship. Using data from the 2011/2012 Canadian Community Health Survey ( n  > 8000) I explored the health differences between atheists and eight categories of religious identities (nonreligious, Anglican, Baptist, Christian, Protestant, Catholic, United Church, and All Others). Surprisingly, results showed no substantive differences between atheists and non-atheists for self-rated health, emotional well-being, and psychological well-being. In contrast, results showed substantive and consistent differences between atheists and non-atheists with respect to social well-being. Results appear to suggest that while religious groups report superior scores on health proxies relative to atheists, this does not translate into substantive health differences .
ISSN:0022-4197
1573-6571
DOI:10.1007/s10943-020-01169-3