The Impact of Faith & Prayer on Mental Health and Well-Being
The first randomized controlled trial of a faith-based prayer app, examining how daily use of PRAY.COM affects stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, and mindfulness over eight weeks.
Published In
Spirituality in Clinical Practice
Laird et al., 2024
Study duration
Participants
Gold standard study design
Study Overview
The Challenge
U.S. adults face rising rates of stress, anxiety, and depression, with mental health challenges reaching historic highs in recent years. For many, traditional clinical services remain out of reach due to cost, stigma, or limited availability creating an urgent need for scalable, accessible interventions that fit within the rhythms of daily life rather than requiring a clinical setting.
Digitally delivered faith-based approaches are particularly promising given the central role that religion and spirituality play in how many Americans already cope with stress and adversity. Rigorous scientific evidence for these approaches has remained limited until now. A randomized controlled trial offers preliminary evidence that engagement with a faith-based digital platform like PRAY.COM is meaningfully associated with improvements in mental health and well-being.
Methodology
Participants
192 U.S. adults
Adults experiencing elevated stress
Study Type
Randomized Controlled Trial
Duration
8 weeks
Focus Areas
Stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, mindfulness
Results
What We Found
More frequent use of the PRAY.COM app was associated with greater reductions in stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout over the eight-week study period. Participants who used the app on more days also reported meaningful improvements in mindfulness.
This represents a dose-response relationship — one of the strongest forms of evidence in clinical research. In practical terms, more use led to better outcomes. The pattern was consistent across all five mental health measures, suggesting that daily faith-based practice through the app delivers cumulative, measurable benefits.
Implications
What This Means
Gold Standard Evidence
This is the first randomized controlled trial of a faith-based prayer app, providing the highest level of evidence that digital faith tools can meaningfully improve mental health outcomes.
Daily Practice Model Validated
The dose-response relationship — more use equals better outcomes — validates the daily practice model at the heart of PRAY.COM. Consistent engagement with faith-based content drives measurable improvement.
Healthcare Integration
As the first RCT of a prayer app, this study opens doors for integration into healthcare systems, employee wellness programs, and clinical referral pathways that require evidence-based validation.
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Connect With Our Research Team
Whether you're an institution interested in research collaboration, a healthcare organization exploring faith-based wellness, or a university seeking campus mental health solutions — we'd love to hear from you.