Faith-based organizations, science, and the pursuit of health.

Over the last three decades, there has been increasing interest in the role that faith-based organizations (FBOs) can play in promoting health and health care access among underserved populations. Although the research literature on church-based health interventions is growing, there are relatively few rigorous evaluations of their effectiveness in addressing health and health care outcomes. Establishing a national faith-based health research network is an excellent opportunity to create an evaluative infrastructure and generate new research on health programs and their effectiveness in FBO settings.