Studies of religiousness and health-related variables in large, population-based cross-sectional or, preferably, longitudinal
studies, which are often prohibitively expensive, are important to complement findings from the more commonly performed studies.
Inadequately known among social science researchers, the national health surveys of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) offer large, high-quality data sets to the public at no or nominal cost and hence
offer important opportunities for research in the area of religion and health, religion and reproductive behavior, sociology
of religion and psychology of religion. This report provides an overview of the data sets and a bibliography of prior research
using these data, which is intended to suggest how the data of NCHS may be further exploited by researchers of religiousness
and health.
Keywords religion - gender - ethnicity - chronic disease - mental health - human behavior
R. F. Gillum has served as a researcher with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics
for over 20 years. Trained in biomedical science and public health, the author has recently turned to research on the role
of religion/spirituality in affecting the health and well-being of the U.S. population.
Natalie Dupree has been part of the team that plans the recurring National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey at the
National Center for Health Statistics for over 10 years. She is a health statistician.