title: The Influence of Religious Attendance on Smoking Among Black Men.
abstract: Cigarette smoking poses a major public health problem that disproportionately affects Blacks and men. Religious attendance has been shown to be positively associated with health promotion and disease prevention among the Black population. In light of this evidence, this study examined if a similar relationship could be found for religious attendance and smoking in Black men.
  
  
  
  The National Survey of American Life (NSAL) study sampled 1,271 African American men and 562 Black Caribbean men. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the association between religious attendance and cigarette smoking.
  
  
  
  After adjusting for age, marital status, household income, education, foreign born status, importance of prayer and major stress, men who reported attending religious services almost every day (odds ratio (OR) = 0.21, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.07, 0.62) and weekly (OR = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.29, 0.77) had lower odds of being a current smoker compared to men who reported never attending religious services. Conclusions/Importance: Findings suggest a health benefit in attending religious services on cigarette smoking among Black men in a nationally representative sample. In spite of lower church attendance in Black men in general, our results demonstrate that religious service attendance may still serve as a buffer against cigarette use. Given the emergent attention on faith-based health promotion among men, this conclusion is relevant and timely.
authors.affiliation: a Program for Research on Men's Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore , Maryland , USA.|b Department of Health, Behavior and Society , Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore , Maryland , USA.
authors.forename: Janice V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Bowie
authors.affiliation: a Program for Research on Men's Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore , Maryland , USA.|b Department of Health, Behavior and Society , Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore , Maryland , USA.
authors.forename: Lauren J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.affiliation: a Program for Research on Men's Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore , Maryland , USA.|c Department of Sociology , University of Maryland , College Park , Maryland , USA.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Beadle-Holder
authors.affiliation: a Program for Research on Men's Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore , Maryland , USA.|d Undergraduate Program in Public Health Studies, Johns Hopkins University , Baltimore , Maryland , USA.
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ezema
authors.affiliation: e Center for Health of Minority Males, University of Mississippi Medical Center , Jackson , Mississippi , USA.|f Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice , Jackson State University , Jackson , Mississippi , USA.
authors.forename: Marino A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bruce
authors.affiliation: a Program for Research on Men's Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore , Maryland , USA.|b Department of Health, Behavior and Society , Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore , Maryland , USA.|d Undergraduate Program in Public Health Studies, Johns Hopkins University , Baltimore , Maryland , USA.|g Center for Biobehavioral Health Disparities Research, Duke University , Durham , North Carolina , USA.
authors.forename: Roland J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Thorpe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D012067:Religion; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: African American; Black; Religious attendance; men's health; smoking