The impact of childhood epilepsy diagnoses on adult religiosity

Citation

Moffatt, Will & Evans, Brent (2024). The impact of childhood epilepsy diagnoses on adult religiosity. Economics Bulletin. vol. 44 (2)

Abstract

For some patients, epileptic seizures are accompanied by surreal physical sensations and religious visions. In some cases, these seizures lead individuals to dramatically change their worldview and religious beliefs. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we build econometric models to assess how a childhood
epilepsy diagnosis affects one's religiosity as an adult. While we find no evidence that epilepsy diagnoses increase
religious faith, we show that people with epilepsy are 17.7 percentage points more likely to attend religious services at
least once per month.

URL

http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2024/Volume44/EB-24-V44-I2-P39.pdf

Keyword(s)

epilepsy

Reference Type

Journal Article

Journal Title

Economics Bulletin

Author(s)

Moffatt, Will
Evans, Brent

Year Published

2024

Volume Number

44

Issue Number

2

ISSN/ISBN

1545-2921

DOI

1545-2921

Reference ID

10484