Assessing and meeting the health needs of Roman Catholic priests in the archdiocese of Chicago.
In 1985, the Bishops' Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry recommended bishops form holistic health boards for their priests based on the results of a 1982 U.S. survey of Catholic priests. In 1995, a holistic health committee was formed under the office of the vicar for priests for the archdiocese of Chicago. One of the committee's first actions was to survey the priests of the archdiocese of Chicago to identify baseline health behaviors and needs. Survey results (n = 524; 52% response rate) revealed the need for the committee to promote health education, preventive care, and annual physicals. The committee conducted a series of health fairs, improved the insurance benefit for an annual physical, and conducted a series of health-related talks targeted to priests. A follow-up survey in 2006 (n = 389; 46% response rate) indicated improvements in health behaviors of the priests. Comparisons to statewide and national data indicate that overall, engagement in healthy behaviors is higher for priests than for men who are not priests.
Department of Internal Medicine, Loyola University Health System, Chicago, Illinois, USA. mkoller@lumc.edu
Michael
M
Koller
Kathleen
K
Blanchfield
Tim
T
Vavra
Jara
J
Andrusyk
Mary
M
Altier
D000368:Aged; D002410:Catholicism / Q000523:psychology*; D002641:Chicago; D015438:Health Behavior; D006266:Health Education; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006694:Holistic Health; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012649:Self Concept; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric