Coping Strategies for Latinos Living with Pain: The Role of Prayer

Studies have identified prayer as one of the most frequently used pain management strategies among older adults, African Americans and Latinos with moderate to severe pain. Designing public health programs targeting Latinos presents unique challenges, given the role of prayer, low numbers of those with insurance and high numbers of seasonal and migrant workers.

This presentation will share the experiences and discuss the findings from a community-based collaborative initiated four years ago to support Latinos with pain and arthritis. To assess Latino health and coping strategies, the collaborative undertook a 600-person survey and three follow-up focus groups. To account for the influence of prayer and to anticipate the potential role that churches might play in program delivery, about 20% of the survey sample was drawn from churches.

Data analysis found that those who attended church were very similar to the rest of the Latino population with respect to age, gender, levels of pain, use of medications, home remedies, and prayer as coping strategies, even though the church attendees had more frequent contacts with priests and other clergy. Latinos show extraordinary interest and motivation for participation in self-management classes in general, but the church attendees showed significantly less interest in specific programs such as swimming, walking, diet and weight management. They were also more likely to discuss their conditions with family, friends and neighbors and less likely to worry about their health in general.

These findings provide important guidance for those involved in designing public health programs for Latinos.