Religious influences on preventive health care use in a nationally representative sample of middle-age women
Religious influences on preventive health care use in a nationally representative sample of middle-age women
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DOI：
10.1007/s10865-005-9035-2
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发表时间：
2006-02-01
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Benjamins, MR
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Benjamins, MR
尽管预防性服务有许多好处，但它们往往得不到充分利用。社会因素，如宗教，可以通过制造障碍或促进使用，在这些差异中发挥突出作用。本研究利用《健康和退休调查》(HRS，1992-1996)的数据，在一个中年妇女样本(N=4253)中调查了宗教出席、宗教重要性和宗派与三种类型的女性预防服务之间的关系。研究结果表明，参加宗教仪式的女性更频繁地使用乳房X光检查、巴氏涂片和自我乳房检查。此外，属于主流新教或犹太教教派的妇女比福音派新教徒更多地使用某些预防性服务。最后，宗教意识水平较高的女性更有可能进行自我乳房检查。这些发现为公共卫生文献中有关影响预防性服务使用的因素增加了重要信息。它们还增加了宗教和卫生研究的日益增长的领域，在这些领域，预防性保健的使用正在成为一种可能的机制，将宗教与各种身体健康结果联系起来。
Despite the many benefits of preventive services, they are often underutilized. Social factors, such as religion, can figure prominently in these discrepancies by either creating barriers or facilitating use. Using data from the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS, 1992-1996), the current study examines the relationship between religious attendance, religious salience, and denomination and three types of female preventive services in a sample of middle-age women (N=4253). Findings indicate that women who attend religious services more frequently use more mammograms, Pap smears, and self-breast exams. In addition, women belonging to Mainline Protestant or Jewish denominations use certain preventive services more than Evangelical Protestants. Finally, women with higher levels of religious salience are more likely to conduct self-breast exams. These findings add important information to the public health literature concerning factors that influence preventive service use. They also add to the growing field of religion and health research where preventive health care use is emerging as a possible mechanism linking religion to a wide variety of physical health outcomes.