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Private religion/spirituality, self-rated health, and mental health among US South Asians

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Abstract

Purpose

Connections between private religion/spirituality and health have not been assessed among US South Asians. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between private religion/spirituality and self-rated and mental health in a community-based sample of US South Asians.

Methods

Data from the Mediators of atherosclerosis in South Asians living in America (MASALA) study (collected 2010–2013 and 2015–2018) and the attendant study on stress, spirituality, and health (n = 881) were analyzed using OLS regression. Self-rated health measured overall self-assessed health. Emotional functioning was measured using the mental health inventory-3 index (MHI-3) and Spielberger scales assessed trait anxiety and trait anger. Private religion/spirituality variables included prayer, yoga, belief in God, gratitude, theistic and non-theistic spiritual experiences, closeness to God, positive and negative religious coping, divine hope, and religious/spiritual struggles.

Results

Yoga, gratitude, non-theistic spiritual experiences, closeness to God, and positive coping were positively associated with self-rated health. Gratitude, non-theistic and theistic spiritual experiences, closeness to God, and positive coping were associated with better emotional functioning; negative coping was associated with poor emotional functioning. Gratitude and non-theistic spiritual experiences were associated with less anxiety; negative coping and religious/spiritual struggles were associated with greater anxiety. Non-theistic spiritual experiences and gratitude were associated with less anger; negative coping and religious/spiritual struggles were associated with greater anger.

Conclusion

Private religion/spirituality is associated with self-rated and mental health. Opportunities may exist for public health and religious care professionals to leverage existing religion/spirituality for well-being among US South Asians.

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Notes

  1. Self-rated health was ordinal, but results were consistent whether ordered logit or OLS regression was used. Monte Carlo simulation suggests that ordered logit and OLS are nearly identical when the dependent variable has five to seven response categories. OLS was used here since it is more easily interpretable and because it is consistent with modeling strategies for other outcomes.

  2. In pairwise correlations between independent variables, there were two instances in the congregation sample that reached a potentially problematic level of correlation (theistic DSE by closeness to God and positive coping by hope). We compared results in Tables 2, 3, 4 and 5 with ancillary models excluding the aforementioned correlated variables one by one. When excluding theistic DSE, closeness to God became nonsignificant predicting SRH (p = .11). For anxiety, when excluding closeness to God, theistic DSE became significant and when excluding theistic DSE, closeness to God became significant. Other than these exceptions, results were consistent with Tables 2, 3, 4 and 5.

  3. Several ordinal independent variables were assessed both categorically and linearly. Here we note differences when comparing main results with ancillary models that assessed prayer, yoga, belief in God, religious attendance, and language at home as categorical variables and education and alcohol as linear trends. Attendance is significant in Table 4 and the ancillary model finds no significant category contrasts for attendance. Whereas education contrast categories were significant in Table 4, the linear trend was marginally significant in the ancillary model predicting anxiety. One significant alcohol category contrast is seen predicting anger in Table 5, however, the linear trend was marginally significant when predicting anger. These exceptions notwithstanding, results in the ancillary analyses were in keeping those seen in Tables 2, 3, 4 and 5.

  4. One example of why this is important, suggested by a reviewer, is because Muslims/Hindus/Sikhs who initiate alcohol consumption may subsequently reduce private religiosity, perhaps in order to reconcile these potentially contradictory elements of their lives. Future research following individuals’ alcohol use, affiliation, and private religiosity over time can shed light on these likely reciprocal processes.

Abbreviations

R/S:

Religiosity/spirituality

US:

United States

SRH:

Self-rated health

DSE:

Daily spiritual experiences

MASALA:

Mediators of Atherosclerosis among South Asians living in America

SSSH:

Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the editors and reviewers for their service and Meghan Podolsky for research assistance.

Funding

This analysis was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (Grant #59607) and the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health. The MASALA Study was supported by NIH Grants 1R01HL093009, 2R01HL093009, R01HL120725, UL1RR024131, UL1TR001872, and P30DK098722.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Consortium on Psychosocial Stress, Spirituality, and Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Blake Victor Kent, Samuel Stroope, Alka M. Kanaya, Ying Zhang, Namratha R. Kandula & Alexandra E. Shields

  2. Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities, Boston, MA, USA

    Blake Victor Kent, Ying Zhang & Alexandra E. Shields

  3. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Blake Victor Kent & Alexandra E. Shields

  4. Department of Sociology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    Samuel Stroope

  5. University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Alka M. Kanaya

  6. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Namratha R. Kandula

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  1. Blake Victor Kent
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Correspondence to Samuel Stroope.

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Kent, B.V., Stroope, S., Kanaya, A.M. et al. Private religion/spirituality, self-rated health, and mental health among US South Asians. Qual Life Res 29, 495–504 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-019-02321-7

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