Research indicates that two common ways breast cancer patients or women with breast cancer cope with their diagnosis and subsequent treatments are participating in computer support groups and turning to religion. This study is the first we are aware of to examine how prayer and religious expression within computer support groups can contribute to improved psychosocial outcomes for this population. Surveys were administered before group access and then 4 months later. Message transcripts were analyzed using a word counting program that noted the percentage of words related to religious expression. Finally, messages were qualitatively reviewed to better understand results generated from the word counting program. As hypothesized, writing a higher percentage of religion words was associated with lower levels of negative emotions and higher levels of health self-efficacy and functional well-being, after controlling for patients' levels of religious beliefs. Given the proposed mechanisms for how these benefits occurred and a review of the support group transcripts, it appeared that several different religious coping methods were used such as putting trust in God about the course of their illness, believing in an afterlife and therefore being less afraid of death, finding blessings in their lives and appraising their cancer experience in a more constructive religious light.

African Americans continue to suffer disproportionately from health disparities when compared to other ethnicities (ACS 2010; CDC 2007). Research indicates that the church and the pastor in the African American community could be enlisted to increase effectiveness of health programs (Campbell et al. in Health Edu Behav 34(6):864–880, 2007; DeHaven et al. in Am J Public Health 94(6):1030–1036, 2004). The objective of this study was to investigate African American pastors’ perceptions about health promotion in the church and how these perceptions could serve as a guide for improving health communication targeting African Americans. Semi-structured interviews with African American clergy revealed that pastors feel strongly about the intersection of health, religion and spirituality; they also believe that discussing health screening and other health issues more frequently from the pulpit and their own personal experiences will ultimately impact health behavior among congregants. This study suggests that African American clergy see themselves as health promoters in the church and believe this communication (i.e., pastor-endorsed health information materials) will impact health behavior among underserved and minority populations.

We conducted focus groups with low-income African American older adults in Kansas City, MO, to examine how this underserved group adopts and uses technology and how technology adoption/use is associated with health information seeking behavior. Low-income African American older adults have been shown to lag behind in terms of their technology access and use. Our findings show that although low-income African American older adults perceive technology to be highly useful, they do not view it as easy to use, thus preventing them from further adopting or using relevant technologies. Consequently, there is skepticism with respect to using technology to search for health information. Our study advances research on underserved groups’ technology use and health information seeking by looking at the intersectionality of race/ethnicity, age, and income.

This study used the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion to test the effect of a sacred symbol and its impact on African American women and their attitude toward the ad and brand. The 2 2 factorial design included premeasures of the respondents' level of involvement with breast cancer screening and a manipulation of the Christian cross in breast cancer screening advertisements. The hypotheses were similar to the ELM and predicted that respondents lowly involved with breast cancer screening would have a favorable attitude toward the ad and brand with the peripheral cue; highly involved respondents would have a favorable attitude toward the ad and brand without the peripheral cue. The analysis showed a main effect of the peripheral cue in advertisements; however, both highly involved and lowly involved respondents reported favorably to the ads with the cross. These results suggest the Christian cross serves not only as a peripheral cue but also as a central part of the persuasive message in health advertisements.

The emerging era of precision medicine (PM) holds great promise for patient care by considering individual, environmental, and lifestyle factors to optimize treatment. Context is centrally important to PM, yet, to date, little attention has been given to the unique context of religion and spirituality (R/S) and their applicability to PM. R/S can support and reinforce health beliefs and behaviors that affect health outcomes. The purpose of this article is to discuss how R/S can be considered in PM at multiple levels of context and recommend strategies for integrating R/S in PM. We conducted a descriptive, integrative literature review of R/S at the individual, institutional, and societal levels, with the aim of focusing on R/S factors with a high level of salience to PM. We discuss the utility of considering R/S in the suitability and uptake of PM prevention and treatment strategies by providing specific examples of how R/S influences health beliefs and practices at each level. We also propose future directions in research and practice to foster greater understanding and integration of R/S to enhance the acceptability and patient responsiveness of PM research approaches and clinical practices. Elucidating the context of R/S and its value to PM can advance efforts toward a more whole-person and patient-centered approach to improve individual and population health.