Rarely have researchers stated spec

Rarely have researchers stated specific hypotheses about spiritual/religious measures, and often relatively strong predictive relationships have simply appeared in a table, without further mention or discussion (Larson et al., 1992). Although more sophisticated research has been conducted on how spirituality/religion affects mental health (George, Ellison, & Larson, in press; Hood et al., 1996), measurement of spiritual/religious constructs in health research has usually been poor in quality, often consisting of a single question, and spirituality has been narrowly conceived in terms of Western traditions of organized religion, primarily Protestant Christianity (Larson et al., 1998). Nevertheless, over time a substantial body of ad hoc and post hoc research findings bearing on the relationships between religion and health has gradually accumulated, and until recently, this literature had occasionally been collected in relatively obscure publications.