title: Living on a prayer: religious affiliation and trauma outcomes.
abstract: Research has shown that religious affiliation is associated with reduced all cause mortality. The aim of this study was to determine if religious affiliation predicts trauma-specific mortality and length of stay. Patients admitted to our urban Level I trauma center in 2008 were examined;  the main study categorization was based on endorsement of a specific religious affiliation during a standard intake procedure. Bivariate and multivariate analysis was performed with in-hospital mortality and length of stay as the outcomes of interest, adjusting for demographic and injury severity  characteristics. A total of 2303 patients were included in the study. Forty-six per cent endorsed a religious affiliation. Patients with a religious affiliation were more likely to be female, Hispanic, and older than those who reported no affiliation (P < 0.001). There was no difference  in length of hospital stay. On bivariate analysis those without religious affiliation were more likely to die (P = 0.01), but this difference disappeared after adjusting for covariates. Although we could not identify a statistical association between religious affiliation and mortality  on multivariate analysis, there was an association with injury severity suggesting religious patients were less severely injured.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC 20060, USA.
authors.forename: Amal
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khoury
authors.forename: Tolulope A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Oyetunji
authors.forename: Oluwaseyi
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bolorunduro
authors.forename: Leia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Harbour
authors.forename: Edward E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Cornwell
authors.forename: Suryanarayana M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Siram
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mellman
authors.forename: Wendy R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Greene
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012067:Religion; D014193:Trauma Centers; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality*