Church Attendance and Mobility Limitation Among Black and White Men With Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Prostate cancer is a significant impediment that can reduce physical functional status. Mobility is fundamental for quality of life and church attendance to be associated with improved physical functioning. Few studies have examined how religious participation have implications for mobility limitation among men in general and among prostate cancer survivors in particular. The purpose of this study was to assess the association between church attendance and mobility limitation among Black and White prostate cancer patients and survivors. Data for this investigation were drawn from the Diagnosis and Decisions in Prostate Cancer Treatment Outcomes Study that consisted of 804 Black and White men with complete information on the primary outcome and predictor variables. Mobility limitation was the primary outcome variable, and church attendance was the main independent variable. The analytic sample was almost equally divided between Black ( N = 382) and White men ( N = 422). The proportion of Black men reporting mobility limitation (30.09%) more than doubled the corresponding percentage for White men (14.7%). Black men had a higher proportion of individuals who reported weekly church attendance (49.2% vs. 45.0%). Fully adjusted modified Poisson regression models produced results indicating that respondents attending church weekly had a lower mobility limitation prevalence (PR = 0.56, 95% CI [0.39, 0.81]) than those never attending church. Results from this study contribute to the body of evidence asserting the health benefits of church attendance. These findings suggest that health providers should consider how religion and spirituality can present opportunities for improved outcomes in prostate cancer patients and survivors.

Religious service attendance and mortality among older Black men

“…Chronic disease can present multiple stressors including burdensome therapeutic protocols and the loss of income, productivity, and quality of life [21,44]. It has been suggested that religious settings and services present opportunities for individuals to have spiritually enriching experiences and to receive emotional support and affirmative messages useful for coping with the uncertainty, vulnerability, hopelessness, fear, anger, and particularly depression that can accompany chronic conditions [21,26,45]. Religious institutions can also be sources of social and economic support to obtain important health information and services [9,46,47].…”

“…This pattern is particularly salient for Black men because religious service attendance is highest during middle and late life for this group [9]. It is also noteworthy that recent studies have found religious service attendance among older Black men to be considerably higher than their White peers [25,26]. Religious service attendance has been PLOS ONE associated with reduced mortality among adults in the general population [27][28][29][30][31] yet, very few studies have explicitly examined the relations between religiosity and health among Black men during middle and late life [9,26].…”

“…It is also noteworthy that recent studies have found religious service attendance among older Black men to be considerably higher than their White peers [25,26]. Religious service attendance has been PLOS ONE associated with reduced mortality among adults in the general population [27][28][29][30][31] yet, very few studies have explicitly examined the relations between religiosity and health among Black men during middle and late life [9,26]. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between religious service attendance and all-cause mortality for middle-and older-age Black men in a nationally representative sample of adults in the US.…”