Mixed Blessings? Religion/Spirituality Predicts Better and Worse Screening Behaviours

Some health research suggests that religious and spiritual variables positively predict health-screening behaviours. However, much of the literature on this topic has utilized exclusively religious samples, or has sampled from populations without uniform access to health care. Either of these issues...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and health 2018-02, Vol.57 (1), p.366-383
Main Author: Speed, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aging
Attendance
Canada
Church attendance
Clinical Psychology
Community health care
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Guideline Adherence
Health Behavior
Health care access
Health research
Health services
Humans
Mammography
Mass Screening
Medical screening
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Original Paper
Papanicolaou Test
Patient Acceptance of Health Care - psychology
Predictions
Preventive Health Services - statistics & numerical data
Public Health
Religion
Religiosity
Religious beliefs
Religious congregations
Religious identity
Religious Studies
Sick Role
Spirituality
Tests
Women
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Summary:Some health research suggests that religious and spiritual variables positively predict health-screening behaviours. However, much of the literature on this topic has utilized exclusively religious samples, or has sampled from populations without uniform access to health care. Either of these issues may have artificially inflated the relationship between religion/spirituality and health-screening behaviours. The current study used data from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey to examine a general sample of women from New Brunswick and Manitoba (N > 1200). Results indicated that lower levels of church attendance were positive predictors of papanicolaou tests and mammograms, while higher levels of attendance were generally associated with poorer screening behaviours. Religiosity was a uniformly non-significant predictor of screening behaviours. Finally, religious affiliation was inconsistently related to screening behaviours, but tended to favour religious non-affiliation when it was. Religion/spirituality does not appear to have a uniformly positive nor linear effect in predicting health-screening behaviours in women.
ISSN:0022-4197
1573-6571
DOI:10.1007/s10943-017-0493-y