Religion, spirituality and belief: Limiting long-term illness

The Scottish Survey Core Questions (SSCQ) data can be used to estimate the prevalence of self-assessed health and limiting long-term illness among adults in Scotland, by religion group.

In 2019, after age-standardisation:

• Those reporting their religion as Other Christian, Muslim, and as having no religion all reported levels of Good/Very Good general health at or above the national average. Lower levels than the national average were reported by those in the Church of Scotland and Other religious groups.
• Those reporting their religion as Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic, Muslim, and Other, all reported higher than average levels of Bad/Very Bad general health.
• Those reporting their religion as Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic, Other Christian, and Other religion, had a higher prevalence of limiting long-term illness than the national Scottish average. Of those, the Church of Scotland group reported the highest prevalence of any religious group (32.6%).
• Only those reporting their religion as Muslim, or as having no religion, reported a lower prevalence of limiting long-term illness than average; of all those reporting their religion as Muslim, 81.7% did not have a limiting long-term illness.