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Religiosity and Attitudes towards Health, Disease, Death and the Use of Stimulants among Jehovah’s Witnesses
- Source :
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 5049, p 5049 (2021), International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Volume 18, Issue 10
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- MDPI AG, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Religiosity is considered as one of the many factors shaping an individual’s health consciousness. The aim of the study is an analysis of the correlation between the religiosity of Jehovah’s Witnesses and their attitudes towards health and disease. A cross-sectional study was performed on the convenience sample of 171 Jehovah’s Witnesses from eastern Poland with the use of two research tools: the author’s questionnaire, focusing on attitudes towards health, disease, death and the use of stimulants, and the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL). The research involved 99 females (57.9%) and 72 males (42.1%), with an average age of 37.25 (SD = 12.59) years. On average, they have been a Jehovah’s Witness for 29.21 (SD = 13.22) years and are characterised by a high ratio of organisational religious activity (ORA) (M = 5.60<br />SD = 0.62) and intrinsic religiosity (IR) (M = 4.81<br />SD = 0.37). Those who had never smoked before becoming one of Jehovah’s Witnesses had a higher IR (Z = −2.822<br />p = 0.005), similarly to those respondents who smoked cigarettes before they became Jehovah’s Witnesses (Z = −2.977<br />p = 0.003) and those who did not abuse alcohol before they became Jehovah’s Witnesses (Z= −1.974<br />p = 0.048). Jehovah’s Witnesses are a group characterised by a high degree of consistency when it comes to religiosity, attitudes regarding health and disease and health behaviours. This means that they follow the teachings of their religion with regard to health issues. Knowledge about the association between religiosity and health behaviours is important to provide effective health education, health promotion and development of health prevention policy, specifically when dealing with more religious groups of clients.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
050109 social psychology
Disease
Health consciousness
Article
Religiosity
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Consistency (negotiation)
death
medicine
Humans
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
030212 general & internal medicine
Psychiatry
Jehovah's Witnesses
disease
attitudes
cigarettes smoking
Religion and Medicine
05 social sciences
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
health
religiosity
alcohol drinking
Witness
humanities
Cross-Sectional Studies
Health promotion
Attitude
Medicine
Female
Health education
Poland
Psychology
Health prevention
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 16604601
- Volume :
- 18
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4060c71e3cfd3276ed192d04ac71fb8f