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. 2023 Nov 17;9(11):e22411.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22411. eCollection 2023 Nov.

The remote intercessory prayer, during the clinical evolution of patients with COVID -19, randomized double-blind clinical trial

Nathan Valle Soubihe Junior  1 , Ângela Cristine Bersch-Ferreira  1 , Samira Martins Tokunaga  1 , Luciana Alves Lopes  1 , Alexandre Biasi Cavalcanti  1 , Sabrina Bernadez-Pereira  1
Affiliations

The remote intercessory prayer, during the clinical evolution of patients with COVID -19, randomized double-blind clinical trial

Nathan Valle Soubihe Junior et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of intercessory prayer performed by a group of spiritual leaders on the health outcomes of hospitalized patients with Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, specifically focusing on mortality and hospitalization rates.

Design: This was a double-blinded, controlled, and randomized trial conducted at a private hospital in São Paulo, Brazil.

Interventions: Both groups continued to receive their usual medical care in accordance with HCor Hospital's institutional patient care protocol for COVID-19 patients.

Intervention: Both groups received their regular medical care according to HCor's institutional patient care protocol for COVID-19 patients. The intervention group, in addition to standard treatment, received intercessory prayers performed by a group of spiritual leaders.

Main outcome measures: The primary endpoint was in-hospital mortality. Secondary endpoints included the need for mechanical ventilation during hospitalization, duration of mechanical ventilation, length of ICU stay, and length of hospital stay.

Results: A total of 199 participants were randomly assigned to the groups. The primary outcome, in-hospital mortality, occurred in 8 out of 100 (8.0 %) patients in the intercessory prayer group and 8 out of 99 (8.1 %) patients in the control group (HR 0.86 [0.32 to 2.31]; p = 0.76). Additionally, there were no significant differences between the groups in terms of secondary outcomes.

Conclusion: The study found no evidence of an effect of intercessory prayer on the primary outcome of mortality or on the secondary outcomes of hospitalization time, ICU time, and mechanical ventilation time.

Keywords: COVID-19; Faith healing; Hospitalization; Prayer; Randomized clinical trials.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

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Fig. 1
Study flowchart.
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