Iltis Ana S, Baker Lauren L, Baldwin Kari, Cruz Lucas, Yaeger Lauren H, DuBois James M
Center for Bioethics, Health and Society, Wake Forest University, 1834 Wake Forest Rd., Winston-Salem, NC, 27106, USA.
Bioethics Research Center, Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, 425 S. Euclid Ave., 8 Barnard, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2025 Feb 20;25(1):703. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-21903-4.
Public health professionals regularly engage faith communities to improve public health. This systematic review characterizes approaches that public health professionals have used to engage faith communities and evaluates them using the Theory of Planned Behavior. It examines engagement regarding vaccination and genetic and genomic healthcare, which have generated significant controversy within religious groups and, for comparison, colorectal cancer screening, which has not.
This systematic review followed PRISMA reporting guidelines. We searched 8 online databases (e.g., Medline, Embase, Scopus). Publications in English that reported engaging a faith community on genetics, vaccination, or colorectal cancer screening were included. We screened 13,117 articles and extracted information from 121 articles reporting on 96 distinct projects.
This review includes 121 articles reporting on 96 distinct projects. 67% of projects took place in the United States. Of these, 73% reported engaging racial or ethnic minorities; only 5% of projects reported engaging primarily White, Christian communities. Only 35% of projects reported addressing religious values that might inform attitudes and beliefs. The majority of publications (n = 74; 77.1%) reported primarily engaging faith communities for reasons unrelated to faith.
Because the Theory of Planned Behavior is widely used and our focus was on faith communities, we expected to see engagement with faith values and beliefs that might inform attitudes toward behaviors or social pressures community members perceive. Fewer than half of the projects reported addressing values or attitudes. There are missed opportunities to engage faith communities on religiously controversial public health initiatives in ways that are most likely to affect health behaviors. Evaluation of the outcomes of such engagement is needed.
The protocol is registered on Open Science Framework (OSF) at osf.io/r2c9n.
公共卫生专业人员经常与宗教团体合作以改善公共卫生状况。本系统评价描述了公共卫生专业人员用于与宗教团体合作的方法,并使用计划行为理论对其进行评估。它考察了在疫苗接种以及遗传和基因组医疗保健方面的合作情况,这些在宗教团体内部引发了重大争议,作为对比,还考察了在结直肠癌筛查方面的合作情况,而这方面并未引发争议。
本系统评价遵循PRISMA报告指南。我们检索了8个在线数据库(如Medline、Embase、Scopus)。纳入了以英文发表的、报道了在遗传学、疫苗接种或结直肠癌筛查方面与宗教团体合作的文献。我们筛选了13117篇文章,并从121篇报道96个不同项目的文章中提取了信息。
本评价纳入了121篇报道96个不同项目的文章。67%的项目在美国开展。其中,73%的项目报道涉及种族或族裔少数群体;只有5%的项目报道主要涉及白人基督教社区。只有35%的项目报道涉及可能影响态度和信仰的宗教价值观。大多数出版物(n = 74;77.1%)报道与宗教团体合作主要是出于与宗教无关的原因。
由于计划行为理论被广泛应用,且我们关注的是宗教团体,我们期望看到与可能影响对行为的态度或社区成员所感受到的社会压力的宗教价值观和信仰的互动。不到一半的项目报道涉及价值观或态度。在以最有可能影响健康行为的方式就具有宗教争议性的公共卫生倡议与宗教团体合作方面,存在错失的机会。需要对这种合作的结果进行评估。
该方案已在Open Science Framework(OSF)上注册,网址为osf.io/r2c9n。