Religious Organizations' Responses to HIV/AIDS

描述（由申请人提供）：大约有100万美国人患有艾滋病毒/艾滋病，每年大约有40，000人感染。自1980年代以来，宗教组织一直向艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者提供服务和支持，但参与和支持的程度各不相同。我们自己对总共近700名艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者进行的研究表明，精神信仰/宗教与患者的生活质量、生活满意度和抑郁症状有关，患者在面对艾滋病毒/艾滋病时变得更加精神信仰/宗教，但宗教组织并不总是接受或支持寻求精神信仰/宗教的患者;在我们的研究中，24%的患者感到被疏远，60%的人在他们的宗教组织中感到不受欢迎，10%的人因为他们的艾滋病毒状况而改变了他们的礼拜场所。不幸的是，人们对影响宗教组织对艾滋病毒/艾滋病的立场的因素知之甚少，这些因素反映在特别方案和服务以及神职人员的态度和行为上。我们提出了一个探索性的研究，目的是描述宗教组织对艾滋病毒/艾滋病的反应的变化，特别是，研究促进或抑制宗教组织参与艾滋病毒/艾滋病相关活动和宗教组织对艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者的关怀的因素。我们的研究将涉及大辛辛那提地区的神职人员和患者，并有3个目的：1）描述各种教会提供的HIV相关项目和服务以及各种宗教教会神职人员对HIV/AIDS患者的态度; 2）比较神职人员和艾滋病感染者对宗教组织如何“欢迎”艾滋病感染者/艾滋病患者的看法;（3）研究宗教组织的人口、结构和意识形态特征，这些特征使它们或多或少地可能为艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者提供服务和支持。本研究的目标将通过测试一个初步的概念模型，艾滋病毒相关的参与和参与使用多方法的方法来实现。我们将调查神职人员从样本的宗教组织在大辛辛那提地区（N=150），我们将采访艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者从辛辛那提大学和辛辛那提VA医疗中心谁有（N=30），并没有（N=30）感到欢迎，在他们的教会。我们将使用面对面的半结构化面试，基于先前验证的工具。神职人员问卷将包括宗教组织对艾滋病毒/艾滋病的官方立场、提供的具体方案和服务以及神职人员和会众对艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者的态度等问题。将向病人询问他们与宗教组织打交道的经历和对宗教组织与艾滋病毒/艾滋病有关的看法。我们将使用回归技术来分析定量数据和测试我们的假设，我们将依靠内容分析来分析对开放式问题的回答，这些问题旨在丰富对定量数据的解释，并检查我们的概念模型的各种元素的局部有效性。我们的研究结果将提供重要的，对艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者的态度，如何欢迎会众对艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者，以及他们做什么类型的服务（或应该）提供给艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者的多角度的观点。这项研究将为今后的干预研究提供信息，这些研究旨在改善艾滋病毒预防工作和对艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者的支助服务，以及艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者的应对和生活质量。我们的研究还可以为公共卫生官员提供信息，告诉他们应该接触什么样的宗教组织，以赞助与艾滋病毒有关的工作。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Approximately 1 million Americans are living with HIV/AIDS, and approximately 40,000 persons become infected each year. Religious organizations have been providing services and support to people with HIV/AIDS since the 1980s, but the levels of involvement and support have varied. Our own research involving a total of nearly 700 patients with HIV/AIDS indicates that spirituality/religion is associated with patients' quality of life, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms and that patients become more spiritual/religious when faced with HIV/AIDS, but religious organizations are not always receptive to or supportive of patients seeking spirituality/religion; 24 percent of patients in our study felt alienated, 60 percent did not feel welcome in their religious organizations, and 10 percent changed their place of worship because of their HIV status. Unfortunately, little is known about the factors that shape religious organizations' stance on HIV/AIDS, as reflected in special programs and services, as well as clergy attitudes and behaviors. We propose an exploratory study that aims to describe variations in responses of religious organizations to HIV/AIDS and, in particular, examines the factors that foster or inhibit religious organizations' involvement in HIV/AIDS-related activities and religious organizations' supportiveness of people with HIV/AIDS. Our 2-year study will involve clergy and patients in the Greater Cincinnati area and has 3 aims: 1) to describe the HIV-related programs and services that are offered by various congregations and the attitudes of clergy from a variety of religious congregations toward people living with HIV/AIDS; 2) to compare the clergy's and the HIV-infected individuals' views of how "welcoming" religious organizations are of people living with HIV/AIDS; and, 3) to examine the demographic, structural, and ideological characteristics of religious organizations that make them more or less likely to offer services to and be supportive of people living with HIV/AIDS. The goals of this study will be achieved through testing a preliminary conceptual model of HIV-related involvement and supportiveness using a multimethod approach. We will survey clergy from a sample of religious organizations in the Greater Cincinnati area (N=150), and we will interview patients with HIV/AIDS from the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati VA Medical Centers who have (N=30) and have not (N=30) felt welcomed in their congregations. We will use face-to-face semi- structured interviews, based on previously validated instruments. The clergy questionnaire will include questions about religious organizations' official position on HIV/AIDS, specific programs and services being offered, and clergy's and congregants' attitudes toward people with HIV/AIDS. The patients will be asked questions about their experiences with and perceptions of religious organizations in relation to HIV/AIDS. We will use regression techniques to analyze quantitative data and test our hypotheses, and we will rely on content analysis to analyze responses to open-ended questions, which are intended to enrich the interpretation of quantitative data and to provide a check on the local validity of various elements of our conceptual model. Our findings will provide important, multi-perspective views on attitudes towards patients with HIV/AIDS, how welcoming congregations are towards patients with HIV/AIDS, and what types of services they do (or should) provide to patients with HIV/AIDS. The study will inform future intervention studies aimed at improving HIV prevention efforts and support services to people with HIV/AIDS, as well as coping and quality of life in patients with HIV/AIDS. Our study might also provide information to public health officials as to what kinds of religious organizations they should reach out to in order to sponsor HIV-related work.