Along your line of thinking DA, those who were being prayed for may have been more fearful to begin with.

The truly interesting study would be between people who were religious and had friends/family praying for them vs People who do not believe in religion whose friends did not pray for them as they are likely also atheistic and then throw in the cranky people who nothing ever kills (ok the last one was for fun), and see what the results were.

I would hazard a guess that those who are by nature more self reliant do better than those who put the outcome "in God's hands".