The Human Flourishing Program Faculty and Research Associates aim to offer courses to Harvard undergraduate and graduate students annually. Below is a list of the courses we have offered.
EPI 230: Religion, Well-Being, and Public Health
Spring 2023 (Tyler VanderWeele)
The course will give an overview of the current state of research on the relationship between religion, well-being, and public health. Over the past three decades, the research literature documenting these relationships has grown dramatically. Evidence has accumulated that religious participation has beneficial effects on all-cause mortality, mental health, cardiovascular disease survival, cancer survival, health behaviors, meaning and purpose, happiness and life satisfaction, social relationships, volunteering, and civic engagement. The course will provide a basic introduction to well-being research and will then review the research studies that have been conducted in this area, with a focus on some of the measurement and methodological challenges faced in this research. The course will explore future research directions in religion and well-being, as well as questions of relevance to the public health implications of the research. Specific topics will include religious participation and longevity, religion and mental health, religion and spirituality in end of life care, religion and purpose, religion and character development, religion and social relationships, forgiveness, and partnerships between religious organizations and public health institutions, including the various tensions encountered in such partnerships. Attention will be given throughout to questions of measurement, study design, and methodology, and the challenges in conducting rigorous research in this area.
Course Prerequisite(s): ID538 or ID200 or [(BIO200 or BIO201 or BIO202&203 or BIO206&207/8/9 or PHS2000A) and (EPI201 or EPI208 or EPI500 or EPI505 or ID201)]; may not be taken concurrently