Introduction

This year has seen the celebration of the 2024 Olympics in Paris—with the USA achieving the highest number of medals (n = 126), followed by China (n = 91), Great Britain (n = 65), France (n = 64) and Australia (n = 53). While the opening ceremony of the Olympics was considered by many to be a rather amateurish chorographically gratuitous demonstration, comprising ‘scenes of derision and mockery’ against Christianity (Giangravé, 2024), nevertheless the Olympics can be a place for noteworthy achievements. It is important, for example, to acknowledge the efforts of Ukraine which (despite the continuing devastation of war) has achieved a total of 12 medals, and the prize of small countries such as Dominica (n = 3) and St. Lucia (n = 2) winning their very first Olympic medals.

Nutrition

A totally different focus of the 2024 Olympics has been upon the food and diet of Olympic competitors (Peene, 2023). Dimensions of food include identity, wellbeing and nutrition, customs and cultural practices, economy and commensality, as well as environmental wellness and food spirituality—reasearch topics which are increasing in popularity (Michopoulou & Jauniškis, 2020). JORH has previously presented a number of articles relating to nutrition and/or fasting dispersed among other thematic topics. This issue of JORH, for the first time, brings together a small number of nutrition-related articles as a theme of its own, in the hope that this area of research in relation to religion and spirituality can be encouraged. These articles represent a diverse group of faith traditions by considering: (1) religious dietary practices from various countries; (2) a comparison of household perceptions and practices of food and water emergency preparedness between Latter-Day Saints and non-Latter-Day Saints in the USA; (3) halal food and medical tourism in South Korea from a Muslim perspective; (4) religious involvement, vegetarian diet, and mental well-being among Seventh-Day Adventists in Peru; (5) a bibliometric analysis on Ramadan fasting research; (6) a differential approach to religious Bahá’í fasting in Germany; and lastly, (7) Faith is Good to Eat: Islam, Christianity, and Eating for a Great Present and Better Future.

Chronic Care

Chronic diseases and/or conditions are generally considered to be those that usually last for three months or longer and are likely to get worse over time, requiring appropriate care. Usually, chronic health issues develop in older adults, with the most common types of chronic diseases and conditions relating to cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and arthritis. However, there are numerous other chronic issues that are not necessarily associated with aging that require long term care.

The current issue of  JORH presents a variety of research concerning chronic or potentially chronic health issues which can develop and progress across the life span, such as diabetes, hepatitis C, alcoholism, drug abuse, mental health, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and cancer—all of which can demand long term care. This diverse collection in this issue comprises: (1) the relationship between care burden and spiritual well-being of mothers of children with cerebral palsy in Turkey; (2) the effect of spiritual care on hope in patients with multiple sclerosis in Iran; (3) the association between spirituality, self-esteem, anxiety and depression among spinal cord injury and healthy subjects in Greece; (4) a supernatural beliefs-based intervention to improve type-2 diabetes self-management in China; (5) how Muslim terminal patients in Pakistan cope with Hepatitis C; (6) spiritually-based interventions for high blood pressure; (7) the role of spirituality in stroke survivors and their caregivers; (8) the association between religiosity/spirituality and cocaine use; and (9) alcohol use and life satisfaction among emerging adults in the United States.

Research relating to cancer in this issue includes: (10) the relationship between spirituality/religiosity and death anxiety among cancer patients; (11) the predictive power of religious coping on care burden, depression, stress, and anxiety in parents of pediatric oncology patients in Turkey; (12) the evaluation of spiritual care and well-being levels of individuals diagnosed with lung cancer in Turkey; (13) the association between religiosity, spirituality and colorectal cancer screening in Alberta, Canada. Finally, this section concludes with (14) designing a spiritual health model for the Muslim elderly living in nursing homes; (15) an exploration of common dyadic coping strategies among Pakistani couples living with chronic conditions; and lastly, (16) a measurement of spiritual wellbeing in an Australian hospital population.

Scales and Measurement

Over the last several years, JORH has published the development and psychometric properties of various scales quantitatively assessing and measuring religion/spirituality to examine its relationship with health (JORH, 2021, 2023b, 2023c, 2024). This section commences with a cautionary warning by Koenig and Carey (2024) regarding the use of assessment scales, namely: (1) religion, spirituality and health research—a warning about contaminated scales. For too long researchers and students (unknowingly) have utilized popular various scales that can potentially jeopardize their results due to these scales being contaminated with items assessing mental or social health. While some scales of this nature can be used with care to avoid item contamination and evade potentially misleading results, other scales are highly problematic and should be avoided. Examples of potentially problematic scales and recommended scales are provided.

The remainder of this section comprises articles considering the construction, validation and or psychometric properties of various scales relating to populations in Pakistan, Korea, Iran, Portugal and Turkey, including (2) construction and validation of the Belief in Divine Retribution Scale for Pakistani Muslims; (3) cross-cultural validation and psychometric properties of the Korean version of the Brief Religious Coping Scale; (4) translation and validation of Persian version of the Gratitude at Work Scale; (5) psychometric evaluation of the Persian version of the Spiritual Self-Care Practice Scale in Iranian patients with cancer; (6) validation of the Centrality of Religiosity Scale for the Portuguese population; (7) theoretical foundations and empirical validation of the Spiritual Leadership Scale among Turkish employees; (8) nurses’ Spiritual Sensitivity Scale—a validity and reliability study in Turkey; (9) development and preliminary validation of the Divine Connectedness Scale in the USA; (10) development and validation of the Ikhlaas Scale in Pakistani Muslim adults; and finally, (11) an introductory “How-to-Guide” regarding the conduct of quantitative and qualitative research in the field of spirituality and health from a Brazilian perspective.

COVID-19

The number of submissions relating to COVID-19 are slowly decreasing as this public health phenomenon continues to decline in its impact. In this issue we have only a small collection related to this topic, including (1) the spiritual needs of Iranian patients with COVID-19; (2) death anxiety in patients with a history of coronary artery bypass graft surgery during the pandemic; (3) spirituality, intolerance, and fear of COVID-19 among older adults in Pakistan; (4) expressions of faith over the dangers of COVID-19 by selected flagellants in the Philippines; and on a more positive note, (5) Grey Zone healers and the COVID-19 pandemic in Chechnya, Russia.

EPILOGUE

Similar to previous issues, the JORH Editors hope you have found the diverse range of research topics in this issue of value. Looking ahead, the next issue of JORH will contain a number of articles relating to religion, faith and health in Poland. Also forthcoming is the International Congress entitled “The Jesuit University in the 21st Century: A Project of Hope for the World”, scheduled from June 4 to 6, 2025, in Seville, Spain (ULA, 2025).