Complementary Spiritist Therapy: Systematic Review of Scientific Evidence

Table 2

Hypothesis 1: Private Prayer is associated with better health outcomes.

Study	Sample	Cohort followup	Predictor	Outcome	Results	Newcastle-Otawa grade
Ai et al. [25]	177 patients undergoing CABG	±3 weeks	Prayer frequencies	Postoperative complications and hospitalization	Prayer frequencies were associated with reduced complications but not hospitalization	8
Ai et al. [25]	294 patients following open-heart surgery	± 4-5 weeks	Private prayer	Quality of life	Indirect influence of using prayer for coping on quality of life through the mediation of cognitive coping and perceived social support	8
Ai et al. [27]	310 patients following open-heart surgery	± 4-5 weeks	Prayer coping	Preoperative stress symptoms	Prayer coping was inversely related to preoperative stress symptoms	7
Braam et al. [30]	2 assessment cycles: 𝑁=1,702 and 𝑁=1,346	3 years	Prayer frequencies	Change in depressive symptoms	At three-year followup, prayer did not predict change of depressive symptoms	7
Ai et al. [26]	246 patients awaiting cardiac surgery	2 weeks	Belief in the importance of private prayer	Optimism	Private prayer predicted optimism, along with older age, better socioeconomic resources, and healthier affect	7
Ai et al. [28]	151 older patients following CABG	1 year	Pray about their postoperative problems and private prayer	Depression and general distress	Most patients pray about their postoperative problems and that private prayer appears to significantly decrease depression and general distress one year post-CABG	8

CABG: coronary artery bypass graft surgery.