Religious coping and hospital admissions among adults with sickle cell disease

Abstract

Although a well-established literature implicates religiosity as a central element of the African American experience, little is known about how individuals from this group utilize religion to cope with specific health-related stressors. The present study examined the relation between religious coping and hospital admissions among a cohort of 95 adults with sickle cell disease—a genetic blood disorder that, in the United States, primarily affects people of African ancestry. Multiple regression analyses indicated that positive religious coping uniquely accounted for variance in hospital admissions after adjusting for other demographic and diagnostic variables. Specifically, greater endorsement of positive religious coping was associated with significantly fewer hospital admissions (β = −.29, P<.05). These results indicate a need for further investigation of the roles that religion and spirituality play in adjustment to sickle cell disease and their influence on health care utilization patterns and health outcomes.

The relationship between religious beliefs and behaviours and changes in Spiritual Health Locus of Control over time in a national sample of African-Americans

“…Prior research suggests that religious involvement is positively associated with health behaviors and outcomes among African Americans (Bediako et al, 2011; Holt, Clark, & Roth, 2014; Waldron-Perrine et al, 2011). Bediako et al (2011) found that greater positive religious coping was associated with fewer hospital admissions among African Americans with sickle-cell disease.…”

Associations amongst disease severity, religious coping and depression in a cohort of Jamaicans with sickle-cell disease

“…A short form of this nature has been used in a previous study on the sickle-cell population (Bediako et al, 2011); and further indicates that the revised scale is an adequate means of assessing religious coping, as it demonstrated moderate coefficient alpha scores of .72 and .79 for the positive and negative scales, respectively. These figures were derived after a principal component analysis utilising orthogonal varimax rotation was conducted on six items of religious coping (three positive and three negative), and was found to be adequate as the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin index was .68, which is within the normal range for scores.…”

“…This allowed for a positive religious scale score (ranging from 3 to 12) and a negative or "religious struggle" scale score (ranging from 2 to 8) to be established. These scores were further interpreted as high scores indicating an endorsement of the various scales (Bediako et al, 2011).…”

“…Common coping strategies utilised within this population range from those that are psychologically healthy (e.g., positive religious coping strategies) (McDougald et al, 2009;O'Connell-Edwards et al, 2009) to those that are maladaptive (e.g., substance abuse) (Bediako et al, 2011;Edwards et al, 2006;Falvo, 2005). The use of religion as a means of coping with the effects of SCD has become of great interest in the current literature.…”

“…The psychological aspect of religious coping has been investigated using the RCOPE (Bediako et al, 2011;Cotton et al, 2009;Pargament et al, 1998). Studies utilising this scale have found that positive religious coping strategies result in fewer symptoms of psychological distress, and increased spiritual growth, while negative religious coping methods have resulted in depression, poorer quality of life and callousness towards other persons (Herbert, Zdaniuk, Schulz, & Sheier, 2009;Pargament et al, 1998).…”