Health professionals' attitudes toward religiosity and spirituality: a NERSH Data Pool based on 23 surveys from six continents

Alex Kørup; Jens Søndergaard; Nada A Alyousefi; Giancarlo Lucchetti; Klaus Baumann; Eunmi Lee; Azimatul Karimah; Parameshwaran Ramakrishnan; Eckhard Frick; Arndt Büssing; Esther Schouten; Wyatt Butcher; René Hefti; Inga Wermuth; Rocio de Diego-Cordero; Maria Cecilia Menegatti-Chequini; Niels Christian Hvidt

doi:10.12688/f1000research.52512.2

Health professionals' attitudes toward religiosity and spirituality: a NERSH Data Pool based on 23 surveys from six continents

F1000Res. 2021 Jun 4:10:446. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.52512.2. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Alex Kørup^{1

2}, Jens Søndergaard¹, Nada A Alyousefi³, Giancarlo Lucchetti⁴, Klaus Baumann⁵, Eunmi Lee^{5

6}, Azimatul Karimah⁷, Parameshwaran Ramakrishnan⁸, Eckhard Frick^{9

10}, Arndt Büssing¹¹, Esther Schouten¹², Wyatt Butcher¹³, René Hefti¹⁴, Inga Wermuth¹⁵, Rocio de Diego-Cordero¹⁶, Maria Cecilia Menegatti-Chequini¹⁷, Niels Christian Hvidt^{1

18}

Affiliations

¹ Research Unit of General Practice, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, 5000, Denmark.
² Department of Mental Health Kolding-Vejle, University of Southern Denmark, Vejle, Region of Southern Denmark, 7000, Denmark.
³ College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11461, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil.
⁵ Faculty of Theology, Albert-Ludwig-University, Freiburg, D-79085, Germany.
⁶ Center for Social Cohesion, Catholic University of Daegu, Daegu, South Korea.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry, Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia.
⁸ Graduate Theological Union, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, USA.
⁹ Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Technical University of Munich, Munich, 81675, Germany.
¹⁰ Munich School of Philosophy, Munich, 80539, Germany.
¹¹ Institute of Integrative Medicine, University Witten/Herdecke, Herdecke, 58313, Germany.
¹² Department of Neonatology, University Hospital Munich, Munich, 80366, Germany.
¹³ School of Divinity, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
¹⁴ Research Institute for Spirituality and Health, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
¹⁵ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Munich, Munich, 80336, Germany.
¹⁶ Research Group CTS 969 Innovation in Health Care and Social Determinants of Health, University of Seville, Seville, 41009, Spain.
¹⁷ Department and Institute of Psychiatry, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, 05403-010, Brazil.
¹⁸ Academy of Geriatric Cancer Research (AgeCare), Odense University Hospital, Odense, 5000, Denmark.

Abstract

Background In order to facilitate better international and cross-cultural comparisons of health professionals (HPs) attitudes towards Religiosity and/or Spirituality (R/S) using individual participant data meta-analysis we updated the NERSH Data Pool. Methods We performed both a network search, a citation search and systematic literature searches to find new surveys. Results We found six new surveys (N=1,068), and the complete data pool ended up comprising 7,323 observations, including 4,070 females and 3,253 males. Most physicians (83%, N=3,700) believed that R/S had "some" influence on their patients' health (CI95%) (81.8%-84.2%). Similarly, nurses (94%, N=1,020) shared such a belief (92.5%-95.5%). Across all samples 649 (16%; 14.9%-17.1%) physicians reported to have undergone formal R/S-training, compared with nurses where this was 264 (23%; 20.6%-25.4%). Conclusions Preliminary analysis indicates that HPs believe R/S to be important for patient health but lack formal R/S-training. Findings are discussed. We find the data pool suitable as a base for future cross-cultural comparisons using individual participant data meta-analysis.

Keywords: Data pool; Health professionals; International collaboration; Religion; Spirituality.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Attitude of Health Personnel
Female
Humans
Male
Physicians*
Religion
Spirituality*
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

Grants were received from Psykiatriens Forskningsfond (Region of Southern Denmark) and the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).