Associations Between Prayer Practices, Healthy Behaviors, and Depression Among Iranian Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Structural Equation Modeling Study.

BACKGROUND: Prayer is a concept that indicates the level of an individual's commitment, attachment, and adherence to worship in life. However, evidence regarding its associations with health behaviors and depression remains limited. This study aimed to examine the associations between prayer practices, healthy behaviors, and depression among students of the University of Medical Sciences. METHODS: This study employed a cross-sectional design. A total of 362 students with a mean age of 21.67 ± 2.98 years participated in the study. Data were collected using questionnaires on prayer, health behaviors, and depression. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS AMOS and IBM SPSS Statistics version 24. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the interrelationships between research variables and to test the conceptual model of the study. RESULTS: The results of this study showed that prayer had a significant direct relationship with a reduction in smoking (β = 0.27, p < 0.001) and a significant indirect relationship with a reduction in depression scores (β = -0.13, p = 0.03) among students. The relationship of prayer with a healthy diet and physical activity was not significant (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Given the cross-sectional design, causal relationships cannot be inferred. Prayer practices were associated with reduced smoking behavior and lower depression scores among medical students; however, these findings should be interpreted cautiously due to methodological limitations, including self-reported data and the non-experimental design. Longitudinal studies are recommended to clarify causal pathways.