Public Health Engagement with Faith-Based Organizations: Toward Respectful Engagement with Beliefs and Values
Ana S. Iltis, PhD, Carlson Professor of University Studies, Professor of Philosophy, and Director, Center for Bioethics, Health and Society, Wake Forest University
Faith-based organizations have been the focus of efforts to improve public health by influencing behaviors such as diet, exercise, and participation in health screenings and vaccination campaigns. Developing models of effectively and respectfully engaging faith communities to improve public health requires understanding the models that have been used, how they have been chosen, and how those models have been perceived.
This presentation will share preliminary results of a scoping review designed to develop a taxonomy of models that public health leaders have used in engaging faith communities. To identify models of engagement, we selected three areas in which public health leaders have engaged faith communities: genetic and genomic healthcare (GGH), vaccination, and colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. We selected two areas (GGH and vaccination) where public health leaders have engaged faith communities and where religious beliefs play a particularly prominent role shaping perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs and where we have seen significant controversy based at least partially on religion in recent years. We refer to these as religiously controversial, i.e., practices that some see as violating fundamental religious commitments or being incompatible with religious beliefs or in which religious beliefs lead to concerns about the practice. Cancer screening is not typically religiously controversial, although religiosity may be a factor in cancer screening behavior. While public health engagement with faith-based organizations aimed at increasing types of cancer screening has focused on several different cancers, especially breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer (CRC), we chose CRC screening as our third condition to avoid programs that typically focus only on males or only on females.
In developing a taxonomy of models of public health engagement with faith communities, we were particularly interested in determining whether and how public health efforts sought to engage community members’ religious and secular beliefs and values that could influence factors likely to predict behavior. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is used widely to in health research and public health programs to study and alter health-related behaviors. According to the TPB, three factors strongly predict intentions to perform behaviors: attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Religious beliefs and religiosity have been associated with these factors. Therefore, in light of the TPB, it is important to understand whether and how public health leaders seek to elicit, understand, and engage with faith communities’ secular and religious beliefs and values that could shape these factors. This review identifies models that public health leaders have used to engage faith communities, the goals of such programs, and the degree to which they address the three domains that predict behavior according to the TPB: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control.
Given the significant investment of resources into public health engagement with faith communities, and the ongoing interest in engaging faith communities to improve public health or to address public health issues, it is important to develop models of effectively and respectfully engaging faith communities to improve public health. This review is an important contribution to this end.
This presentation will share preliminary results of a scoping review designed to develop a taxonomy of models that public health leaders have used in engaging faith communities. To identify models of engagement, we selected three areas in which public health leaders have engaged faith communities: genetic and genomic healthcare (GGH), vaccination, and colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. We selected two areas (GGH and vaccination) where public health leaders have engaged faith communities and where religious beliefs play a particularly prominent role shaping perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs and where we have seen significant controversy based at least partially on religion in recent years. We refer to these as religiously controversial, i.e., practices that some see as violating fundamental religious commitments or being incompatible with religious beliefs or in which religious beliefs lead to concerns about the practice. Cancer screening is not typically religiously controversial, although religiosity may be a factor in cancer screening behavior. While public health engagement with faith-based organizations aimed at increasing types of cancer screening has focused on several different cancers, especially breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer (CRC), we chose CRC screening as our third condition to avoid programs that typically focus only on males or only on females.
In developing a taxonomy of models of public health engagement with faith communities, we were particularly interested in determining whether and how public health efforts sought to engage community members’ religious and secular beliefs and values that could influence factors likely to predict behavior. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is used widely to in health research and public health programs to study and alter health-related behaviors. According to the TPB, three factors strongly predict intentions to perform behaviors: attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Religious beliefs and religiosity have been associated with these factors. Therefore, in light of the TPB, it is important to understand whether and how public health leaders seek to elicit, understand, and engage with faith communities’ secular and religious beliefs and values that could shape these factors. This review identifies models that public health leaders have used to engage faith communities, the goals of such programs, and the degree to which they address the three domains that predict behavior according to the TPB: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control.
Given the significant investment of resources into public health engagement with faith communities, and the ongoing interest in engaging faith communities to improve public health or to address public health issues, it is important to develop models of effectively and respectfully engaging faith communities to improve public health. This review is an important contribution to this end.