• Awardees
• Astin and Vieten
• Gais and Arria
• Holt
• Krause
• McKeown and Pope
• Sheridan
• Steffen

Announcement of RFP Awards

Religion and Health: Effects, Mechanisms and Interpretation

Supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation

The Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health (CSTH) at Duke University, announces the awarding of seven $200,000 grants in response to a request for proposals (RFP), Religion and Health: Effects, Mechanisms and Interpretation. The following 7 proposals will be funded through the Center:

• John Astin, Ph.D. & Cassandra Vieten, Ph.D.: "A Longitudinal Study of Spiritual Engagement, Self-Transcendence, and Human Flourishing"

• Thomas Gais, Ph.D. & Amelia Arria, Ph.D.: "Determining the Relative Effectiveness of Faith-Based and Secular Substance Abuse Treatment Service Providers: A Comparison of Client Outcomes"
  

• Cheryl Holt, Ph.D.: "Religion-Health Mechanisms among African American Men and Women"
  

• Neal Krause, Ph.D.: "Religion, Aging, and Mexican American Health"
  

• Robert McKeown, Ph.D. & Holly Pope, Ph.D. (c): "Understanding Social and Personal Aspects of Faith and Practice Related to Health"
  

• Michael Sheridan, Ph.D.: "Investigation of the Effects and Mechanisms of Religious Involvement on the Physical and Mental health of African American Caregivers"
  

• Patrick Steffen, Ph.D.: "Religious Community and the Hispanic Paradox: A Theological Model of Why Mexican Immigrants have Better Health than Americans"
  

The Center, based in Duke’s Center for Aging and Human Development, received 232 letters of intent in response to the RFP. These proposals covered a wide range of topics and included research questions focused on many different patient populations—adults, adolescents, children, the aged, persons with mental illness, topics affecting women only, clergy and other faith-based workers, caregivers, and minority /ethnic groups. Researchers and topics were from many faith traditions including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and others. Researchers were from multidisciplinary backgrounds, including sociologists, physicians, nurses, chaplains, public policy makers, educators and theologians. Proposals came from colleges and universities, medical and nursing schools, community-based organizations, seminaries, mental health facilities, VA and other hospitals, and religious organizations. Twenty-seven (11.6%) of the letters of intent were from countries outside of the United States including: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Israel, Italy, India, Kenya, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Romania, Switzerland, Tanzania, and the United Kingdom.

A select set of full proposals were requested and thirty-two full proposals were formally reviewed. The decision process was enabled by 32 outside reviewers and 10 expert judges in academia and medicine from across the United States. These reviewers judged the proposals on twelve criteria and provided the Center with written evaluations. A panel of outside reviewers and judges reviewed the proposals and made the final selection of 7 award winners (above). The funding for these projects began on February 1, 2008.