Greek Christian Orthodox Ecclesiastical lifestyle: could it become a pattern of health-related behavior?

Background: Although past research has globally supported the salutary impact of religion on health and health-related behaviors, it has not extensively examined the impact of the Christian Orthodox Church's way of living on people's health and health-related behavior.

Methods: Semistructured personal interviews were used to investigate a stratified sample of 20- to 65-year-old individuals in the greater Athens area. Constructs were compared to single items and indices, which varied across data sets.