Places of Habits and Hearts: Church Attendance and Latino Immigrant Health Behaviors in the United States

A Protective Canopy: Religious and Social Capital as Elements of a Theory of Religion and Health

In order to help fill the gap in midrange theory for the religion-health connection, this paper reviews relevant literature on religious capital as well as social capital, a concept with which religious capital is sometimes incorrectly conflated. It identifies elements and mechanisms for each type of capital, including both quality and quantity, and describes evidence for their relationship with health. Expanding, unifying, and integrating these theoretical elements can help better understand the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between religion and health, with concomitant policy implications such as faith-based interventions as well as spur additional research on the topic.

Facilitators and Challenges to Health Promotion in Black and Latino Churches

BACKGROUND

Churches are important assets for the African American and Latino communities. They can play a critical role in health promotion, especially in areas that are under-resourced and in which residents have limited access to health care. A better understanding of health promotion in churches is needed to support and maintain church collaborations and health initiatives that are integrated, data-driven, and culturally appropriate. The purpose of this study is to identify churches' facilitators and challenges to health promotion and to contrast and compare Black and Latino churches of different sizes (< 200 members versus > 200 members).

METHODS

We interviewed leaders of 100 Black and 42 Latino churches in South Los Angeles to assess their history of wellness activities, resources, facilitators, and challenges to conduct health promotion activities.

RESULTS

Eighty-three percent of African American and 86% of Latino church leaders reported at least one health activity in the last 12 months. Black and Latino churches of different sizes have similar interests in implementing specific health promotion strategies and face similar challenges. However, we found significant differences in the composition of their congregations, number of paid staff, and the proportions of churches that have a health or wellness ministry and that implement specific wellness strategies. Fifty-seven percent of African American and 43% of Latino church leaders stated that they needed both financial support and professional expertise for health promotion.

DISCUSSION

Our findings highlight the importance of conducting a readiness assessment for identifying intervention content and strategies that fit the intervention context of a church.

Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Among Russian-speaking Immigrants: The Importance of Culture and Home Country Experiences

There is potential to improve low colorectal cancer screening rates, reduce mortality, and narrow health disparities, if the distinctive screening barriers among Russian-speaking immigrants were better understood. However, there is little relevant research about the topic. To address this gap, this study aimed to identify barriers to timely colorectal cancer screening, especially colonoscopies, among Russian-speakers in New York City. Thirteen key informant interviews were performed with providers, community leaders, and academics. Eight focus groups were then conducted with 81 Russian-speaking individuals, age 50-75, who had not had a timely colonoscopy. Results were translated, transcribed, coded and analyzed. Barriers identified included individual, communal, and structural issues. Distinctive barriers, such as those related to culture and to the experiences of living under the Soviet system, were uncovered. Barriers identified can potentially be reduced through interventions suggested by the research, including more education and more effective provider recommendations.

COVID-19 Amongst the Ultra-Orthodox Population in Israel: An Inside Look into the Causes of the High Morbidity Rates

The current paper focuses on the circumstances that have led to the high COVID-19 infection rates amongst the ultra-Orthodox population in Israel. The current study utilizes a qualitative design and is based on in-depth interviews, email correspondence and online records of 25 ultra-Orthodox individuals who either tested positive for COVID-19 or had contact with a verified COVID-19 patient. The data were analyzed through identification of main themes and an interpretation of their meanings. The findings showed that a wide range of causes led to the high infection rate, including aspects that derive from a structural element, a religious element and a social-ideological element—all of which are directly or indirectly connected to religion. These findings demonstrate the central role of religion in health outcomes among the ultra-Orthodox community in general and during pandemics in particular, and they shed light on the central role of religion in health outcomes among closed-religious communities. The findings further reveal the importance of cooperation between the state authorities and the religious ones, and of providing culturally adapted health service solutions in the fight against COVID-19 and promoting health more generally. Study limitations are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided.

Evaluating the Quality of Health-Related WeChat Public Accounts: Cross-Sectional Study

Background

As representatives of health information communication platforms accessed through mobile phones and mobile terminals, health-related WeChat public accounts (HWPAs) have a large consumer base in the Chinese-speaking world. However, there is still a lack of general understanding of the status quo of HWPAs and the quality of the articles they release.

Objective

The aims of this study were to assess the conformity of HWPAs to the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode) and to evaluate the suitability of articles disseminated by HWPAs.

Methods

The survey was conducted from April 23 to May 5, 2019. Based on the monthly (March 1-31, 2019) WeChat Index provided by Qingbo Big Data, the top 100 HWPAs were examined to evaluate their HONcode compliance. The first four articles published by each HWPA on the survey dates were selected as samples to evaluate their suitability. All materials were assessed by three raters. The materials were assessed using the HONcode checklist and the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM) score sheet. Data analysis was performed with SPSS version 17.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA) and Excel version 2013 (Microsoft Inc, Washington DC, USA).

Results

A total of 93 HWPAs and 210 of their released articles were included in this study. For six of the eight principles, the 93 HWPAs nearly consistently did not meet the requirements of the HONcode. The HWPAs certified by Tencent Corporation (66/93, 71%) were generally slightly superior to those without such certification (27/93, 29%) in terms of compliance with HONcode principles. The mean SAM score for the 210 articles was 67.72 (SD 10.930), which indicated “adequate” suitability. There was no significant difference between the SAM scores of the articles published by certified and uncertified HWPAs (P=.07), except in the literacy requirements dimension (t_df=97=–2.418, P=.02).

Conclusions

The HWPAs had low HONcode conformity. Although the suitability of health information released by HWPAs was at a moderate level, there were still problems identified, such as difficulty in tracing information sources, excessive implicit advertisements, and irregular usage of charts. In addition, the low approval requirements of HWPAs were not conducive to improvement of their service quality.

Church-based interventions to address obesity among African Americans and Latinos in the United States: a systematic review

CONTEXT

Multilevel church-based interventions may help address racial/ethnic disparities in obesity in the United States since churches are often trusted institutions in vulnerable communities. These types of interventions affect at least two levels of socio-ecological influence which could mean an intervention that targets individual congregants as well as the congregation as a whole. However, the extent to which such interventions are developed using a collaborative partnership approach and are effective with diverse racial/ethnic populations is unclear, and these crucial features of well-designed community-based interventions.

OBJECTIVE

The present systematic literature review of church-based interventions was conducted to assess their efficacy for addressing obesity across different racial/ethnic groups (eg, African Americans, Latinos).

DATA SOURCES AND EXTRACTION

In total, 43 relevant articles were identified using systematic review methods developed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Task Force on Community Preventive Services. The extent to which each intervention was developed using community-based participatory research principles, was tailored to the particular community in question, and involved the church in the study development and implementation were also assessed.

DATA ANALYSIS

Although 81% of the studies reported significant results for between- or within-group differences according to the study design, effect sizes were reported or could only be calculated in 56% of cases, and most were small. There was also a lack of diversity among samples (eg, few studies involved Latinos, men, young adults, or children), which limits knowledge about the ability of church-based interventions to reduce the burden of obesity more broadly among vulnerable communities of color. Further, few interventions were multilevel in nature, or incorporated strategies at the church or community level.

CONCLUSIONS

Church-based interventions to address obesity will have greater impact if they consider the diversity among populations burdened by this condition and develop programs that are tailored to these different populations (eg, men of color, Latinos). Programs could also benefit from employing multilevel approaches to move the field away from behavioral modifications at the individual level and into a more systems-based framework. However, effect sizes will likely remain small, especially since individuals only spend a limited amount of time in this particular setting.

Black Caribbean Emerging Adults: A Systematic Review of Religion and Health

Religion, a prominent factor among Black diasporic communities, influences their health outcomes. Given the increase in Black Caribbeans living in the United States, it is important to understand how religion's function among different ethnic groups of Black Americans. We systematically reviewed four databases and included articles of any study design if they (a) focused on the religious experiences of emerging adults (18-29 years) identifying as Black Caribbean in the United States, in light of medical, public health, or mental health outcomes, and (b) were published before November 30, 2018. Study results contribute to future studies' conceptualization and measurement of religion among Black Caribbean emerging adults.

Health-Related Lifestyle Behavior and Religiosity among First-Generation Immigrants of Polish Origin in Germany

Background: Health-related lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and obesity are major cardiovascular risk factors. Previous studies have mostly demonstrated a favorable association between religiosity and these cardiovascular risk factors; however, no studies have investigated this relationship in Polish immigrants. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the association between health-related lifestyle behaviors and religiosity in Polish immigrants in Germany. Methods: The smoking patterns, frequency of alcohol consumption, physical activity, and presence of overweight/obesity were assessed in 257 first-generation immigrants of Polish origin living in Germany. Religiosity was measured with the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS, Huber, 2003) consisting of 15 items that categorized the respondents into intrinsically, extrinsically, and not/marginally religious. Results: After adjusting for various sociodemographic, migration, and health-related characteristics, intrinsic religiosity was significantly associated with a lower risk of being a smoker (odds ratios (OR) = 0.34, confidence intervals (CI) = 0.15–0.76) and was also associated with a lower risk of alcohol consumption (OR = 0.33, CI = 0.15–0.71), but a higher risk of being overweight/obese (OR = 2.53, CI = 1.15–5.56) in comparison with extrinsic/marginal religiosity. No significant relationship was found between religiosity and physical activity. Conclusions: In Polish immigrants, intrinsic religiosity acts as a protective factor against some cardiovascular risk factors (smoking and alcohol consumption).