relationship between religious attitude and general health of medical science students in different regions in iran

Background: religion and religiosity have important effect on physical and mental aspects of human, and thus religious study is nowadays a new and attractive field of study. the role of religion in general health of students stimulated the conduction of this study.materials and methods: in this descriptive-analytical study, 1,900 students of lorestan, fasa, shiraz, golestan, kerman, and shahrekord universities of medical sciences were selected for evaluation, using stratified random sampling. the demographic questionnaire, khodayarifard's religious attitude questionnaire, and general health inventory were distributed among students. data was analyzed with descriptive tests, chi-square test, and pearson correlation coefficient, using spss. results: the mean and standard deviation of age, general health score, and religious attitude score of students, on a scale of 100, were 22.18±3.24 years, 23.17±8.14, and 82.4±10.35, respectively. among the students, 13% had medium religious attitude and 87% (1,653) had strong religious attitude. a positive relationship was observed between religious attitude and mental health. a significant direct correlation was also observed between religious attitude and general health (p<0.05). conclusion: results indicated that the majority of medical science students had strong religious attitude. a positive significant correlation was observed between religious attitude and general health. since more than half of the students demanded the holding of religious question and answer sessions and marriage workshops, the necessity of holding such courses was further sensed.