title: Dimensions of religiousness and cancer screening behaviors among church-going Latinas.
abstract: Churches are a promising setting through which to reach Latinas with cancer control efforts. A better understanding of the dimensions of religiousness that impact health behaviors could inform efforts to tailor cancer control programs for this setting. The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between dimensions of religiousness with adherence to cancer screening recommendations among church-going Latinas. Female Spanish-speaking members, aged 18 and older from a Baptist church in Boston, Massachusetts (N = 78), were interviewed about cancer screening behaviors and dimensions of religiousness. We examined adherence to individual cancer screening tests (mammography, Pap test, and colonoscopy), as well as adherence to all screening tests for which participants were age-eligible. Dimensions of religiousness assessed included church participation, religious support, active and passive spiritual health locus of control, and positive and negative religious coping. Results showed that roughly half (46 %) of the sample had not received all of the cancer screening tests for which they were age-eligible. In multivariate analyses, positive religious coping was significantly associated with adherence to all age-appropriate screening (OR = 5.30, p < .01). Additional research is warranted to replicate these results in larger, more representative samples and to examine the extent to which enhancement of religious coping could increase the impact of cancer control interventions for Latinas.
authors.affiliation: Center for Community-Based Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215, USA, jennifer_allen@dfci.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Jennifer D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.forename: Claudia R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Pischke
authors.forename: Laura S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Tom
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Juarez
authors.forename: Hosffman
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ospino
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Suarez
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D001900:Boston; D003113:Colonoscopy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D065006:Papanicolaou Test / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012944:Social Support; D055815:Young Adult