Patient Perspectives on Religiously Affiliated Care in Rural and Urban Colorado.

Publisher: Sage Publications Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101518419 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 2150-1327 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 21501319 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Prim Care Community Health Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications

Religion* ; Spirituality*; Adult ; Colorado ; Humans ; Pilot Projects ; Rural Population ; United States

Introduction: Religiously affiliated healthcare organizations play an important role in the delivery of care in the United States. There is a gap in the literature regarding patients' attitudes toward receiving care at these institutions, especially in geographically diverse populations.
Methods: In this two-site pilot study, we conducted a written survey of 141 adult primary care patients at non-religiously affiliated clinics in rural and urban Colorado. Demographic information, measures of religiosity and spirituality, and opinions regarding religiously affiliated care were collected.
Results: 73.3% and 69.6% of patients in rural and urban counties, respectively, had no preference as to the religious affiliation of their care. However, patients in the urban county (24.1%) were more likely than those in the rural county (8.3%) to prefer care that was not affiliated with any religion.
Conclusions: This study suggests that concerns such as proximity to care and patient/provider relationships may be more important to patients than the possible religious affiliation of a healthcare organization. This work is a first step in better understanding patients' attitudes toward religiously affiliated care in urban versus rural settings.

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Keywords: patient preference; religion; rural; spirituality; urban

Date Created: 20210505 Date Completed: 20210624 Latest Revision: 20210624

20231215

PMC8114281

10.1177/21501327211012158

33949248