Spirituality and Health in Brazil: A Survey Snapshot of Research Groups

Abstract

Articles on “Spirituality and Health” have multiplied considerably in Brazil in the last decade. More recently, however, research groups created specifically to investigate this topic have emerged. This study aims to provide an overview of the field by means of a survey in the Directory of Research Groups in Brazil. Thirty-three groups were initially identified, of which 16 were selected for analysis and placed into two categories: “established” groups and lines of research, and “in-process” groups and lines of research. The survey made it possible to identify postgraduate programs that develop studies on this theme, the main researchers, and the potentials and challenges of this research field in Brazil. The results also indicate that “Spirituality and Health” is a fundamentally interdisciplinary field of research that is expanding and has gained greater legitimacy in the scientific community in the last four years. The main challenges to and potentials for advancement of knowledge are the need for theoretical and methodological development to support research, educational improvement in spiritual care, development of a critical and conscious reflection on the political implications of the field (especially due to the religious diversity in the Brazilian cultural context), and the role of spirituality/religiosity in public health promotion policies.

Brazilian Adaptation and Validation of the Religious and Spiritual Struggles (RSS) Scale—Extended and Short Version

“…In this cultural context, studies investigating the relationship between spirituality and health have been gaining increasing attention in recent years. Evidence comes from the increase in research groups in Spirituality and Health in graduate programs, according to a recent survey (Esperandio 2020). Brazil also falls in 13th place in the international ranking of publications in the Scopus database and "5th place in articles on medicine, psychology and nursing that include R/S, in the last five years" (Moreira-Almeida and Lucchetti 2016).…”

“…A predominantly positive perspective on the impact of religion and spirituality characterizes Brazilian studies in this field. Therefore, it is urgent to investigate other aspects as well, such as the implications of negative religious/spiritual (R/S) coping and R/S struggles for health outcomes, as already pointed out by Brazilian researchers (Moreira-Almeida and Lucchetti 2016;Esperandio 2020). Such studies can contribute to a better understanding of how the R/S dimension acts or interferes in health/illness processes in different scenarios, for example, in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic (Pargament and Exline 2022), in mental health (Ellison et al 2013;Plante 2020;Exline et al 2021), and in palliative care (Damen et al 2021) and end-of-life care (Puchalski et al 2016), among others.…”

Spirituality as a protective factor for chronic and acute anxiety in Brazilian healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak

“…Villela et al also found that the pandemic had a crucial impact on HCWs’ work routines, with a high rate of AS [ 28 ]. It is noteworthy that spirituality research in Brazil has great relevance due to its cultural context since spirituality and religion are commonplace within Brazilian culture [ 30 , 31 ]. Indeed, most of the Brazilian population has a religious affiliation [ 31 ].…”