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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Pamela D. Ark, PhD, RN1, Baqar H. Husaini, PhD2, and Pamela C. Hull, MA2. (1) School of Nursing/Center for Health Research, Tennessee State University, 3500 John Merritt Blvd, Box 9590, Nashville, TN 37209, 615-963-5276, park@tnstate.edu, (2) Center for Health Research, Tennessee State University, P.O. Box 9580, 3500 John A. Merritt Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37209
This study examines the relationship of religious coping styles, medical problems and health services utilization. Pargament(1997) outlined three religious coping styles. Self-direction is defined as people who rely on themselves rather than on God; deferring gives the responsibility for coping over to God; collaborative implies both self and God are active partners in coping. The study sample included elderly females (N=328), mean age of 73.5, Caucasian (n=195) and African American (n=133). Data were part of a larger elderly depression study. Variables include self-report measures of medical problems, scores for religious coping, and service utilization reported as visits to doctors/emergency room visits/# hospital days. By coping style and medical problems, the means for medical problems were consistent among African Americans and Caucasians (4.67 & 5.7, respectively). Diabetes was correlated with High Blood Pressure for both races (AA: r=.289, p=.001 & Caucasians: r=.176, p=.018). Among Caucasians who used the self-directing style, there was a negative correlation with medical problems (r=-.141, p=.059). Findings indicate African American females as more religious, attend church more, and tend to use both self-directing and deferring styles when compared to Caucasian females. However, the deferring style was inversely related to physician visits. When controlling for age and medical problems, for both Caucasian and African American females, higher scores on the deferring coping style scale predicted lower physician visits (Standardized Beta=-.158, p<.05 for Caucasians & Beta=-.141, p<.10 for African Americans). Project support: AHRQ (Grant No. 1R24HS11640-01).
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Elderly, Health Care Utilization
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: none
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.