Religion and Cancer-Related Behaviors In Black Americans

描述（由申请人提供）：与其他种族或族裔群体相比，非裔美国人患癌症的比例不成比例。有许多社会和文化因素与影响癌症死亡率的预防和筛查行为有关。宗教信仰/灵性（RS）似乎是这些因素之一。RS是许多非裔美国人生活的中心，与癌症筛查、风险和预防行为有关。经研究表明，圣经对健康行为/生活方式、社会支持、应对压力、积极影响或心理健康以及社会影响等方面的影响对健康具有有益影响。然而，迄今为止的研究尚未为这些介质提供经验证据。因此，RS与健康（包括癌症）之间的关系在很大程度上无法解释。这个研究领域非常需要理论。目前，这一领域的研究主要是基于对这些介质的推测和适度的经验证据。这项拟议的研究将首先确定现有的或开发有效和可靠的中介措施，然后测试非裔美国人RS和癌症相关行为的模型。文献综述和初步研究表明，压力应对、社会支持、积极情感/心理健康和经文影响对RS健康行为功能的影响可能是这一关系最有希望的中介。不同的介质也可能与不同的癌症相关行为（例如，风险、预防、筛查）有不同的关联。我们将测试RS与癌症风险、预防和筛查行为的模型，包括一组潜在的介质。这将是已知的第一个对非裔美国人RS和癌症相关行为模型进行实证测试的研究。最后，我们将根据研究结果，制定一套以教会为基础的癌症交流建议。RS在为非裔美国人开发更有效的癌症交流干预措施方面具有巨大的潜力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): African Americans are disproportionately affected by cancer when compared to other racial or ethnic groups. There are a number of social and cultural factors that relate to prevention and screening behaviors that impact cancer mortality rates. Religiosity/spirituality (RS) appears to be one of these factors. RS is central to the lives of many African Americans, and is related to cancer screening, risk, and prevention behaviors. RS has been proposed to have salutary effects on health in general through several mediators, including but not limited to scriptural influence on health behavior/lifestyle, social support, coping with stress, positive affect or mental health, and social influence. However, research to date has not provided empirical evidence for these mediators. Thus, the relationship between RS and health (including cancer) has gone largely unexplained. This area of research is in great need of theory. At present, studies in this area are guided largely by speculation and modest empirical evidence for these mediators. The proposed study will first identify existing or develop valid and reliable measures of the mediators, and then test a model of RS and cancer-related behaviors among African Americans. A literature review and pilot study suggest that the coping with stress, social support, positive affect/mental health, and scriptural influence on health behavior functions of RS may be among the most promising mediators of this relationship. It is also possible that different mediators may carry different associations with different cancer-related behaviors (e.g., risk vs. prevention vs. screening). We will test a model of RS and cancer risk, prevention, and screening behaviors, including a set of potential mediators. This will be the first known study to empirically test a model of the RS and cancer-related behaviors in African Americans. Finally, we will develop a set of recommendations for church-based cancer communication, based on the study findings. RS has great potential for use in the development of more effective cancer communication interventions for African Americans.