Effect of religion on hypertension in adult Buddhists and residents in China: A cross-sectional study

Qingtao Meng,Kai Liu,Rufeng Shi,Si Wang,Ying Xu,Xin Zhang,Xiaoping Chen

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-26638-4

Qingtao Meng, Kai Liu + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26638-4

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Abstract

Correlation between religion and hypertension is worth investigating since they both influence many people. Compared to studies which quantify religion with indicators representing only restricted dimensions of religion, researches assessing religion as an integral is preferable while lacking. Moreover, religious behaviors have great potential to be generalized if they are proved to be mediator through which religion exerts effect. However, relevant evidence is limited. Therefore, this cross-sectional study recruited 1384 adult Tibetan Buddhists from two Buddhist institutes in the Sichuan Province of China, and enrolled 798 adult Tibetan residents from nearby villages/towns. Each participant received a questionnaire, physical examination, and blood biochemistry tests. Buddhist effect on hypertension was investigated. The effects of uniquely Buddhist behaviors on hypertension were analyzed. The hypertensive risk of the Tibetan Buddhists is significantly decreased by 38% than Tibetan residents. As a Buddhist behavior, vegetarian diet highly approximates to be protective for Tibetan hypertension. As another Buddhist behavior, longer Buddhist activity participation time is associated with decreased prevalence of hypertension as well as lower blood pressure (BP) by analyzing subgroup of 570 Buddhists. Therefore, the protective role of religion on hypertension is suggested, and the religious behaviors are mediators which may be applied to general population.

Highlights

Religion is defined as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe; it usually involves devotional and ritual observances and often contains a moral code for the conduct of human affairs[1]
By comparing the hypertensive risk of Tibetan Buddhists with that of the general population living in Sichuan Province in China, this research aimed to test the hypothesis that religion plays a role in hypertension
The results demonstrate that the time spent participating in Buddhist activity was negatively associated with both systolic BP (SBP) (β = −0.112, P < 0.01) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (β = −0.120, P < 0.01), which suggest a beneficial effect of greater time spent participating in Buddhist activity

Summary

Introduction

Religion is defined as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe; it usually involves devotional and ritual observances and often contains a moral code for the conduct of human affairs[1]. Studies evaluating religion as an integrated whole are better able to determine the relationship between religion and hypertension since they can assess religion comprehensively, especially those comparing the hypertensive risk between full-time religious staff and ordinary residents. If full-time religious staff members are found to have a lower risk of hypertension, whether religious behaviours are the mediators through which religion exerts its effects is worthy of investigation because those behaviours have great potential to be applied to the general population. Once it was established that a difference in the hypertensive risk between the two populations existed, whether religion-related behaviours were mediators of that difference was investigated

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