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Religion and Disparities: Considering the Influences of Islam on the Health of American Muslims

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Abstract

Both theory and data suggest that religions shape the way individuals interpret and seek help for their illnesses. Yet, health disparities research has rarely examined the influence of a shared religion on the health of individuals from distinct minority communities. In this paper, we focus on Islam and American Muslims to outline the ways in which a shared religion may impact the health of a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse minority community. We use Kleinman’s “cultural construction of clinical reality” as a theoretical framework to interpret the extant literature on American Muslim health. We then propose a research agenda that would extend current disparities research to include measures of religiosity, particularly among populations that share a minority religious affiliation. The research we propose would provide a fuller understanding of the relationships between religion and health among Muslim Americans and other minority communities and would thereby undergird efforts to reduce unwarranted health disparities.

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Acknowledgments

AIP’s time-effort was partially supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program. This project was partially carried out during AIP’s tenure as a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. The authors thank Afrah Raza’s and Dr. Hasan Shanawani’s assistance with literature reviews and tabulation of data. We also thank Drs. AbdurRahman El-Sayed and Marshall Chin for their review and comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program on Medicine and Religion, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Aasim I. Padela & Farr A. Curlin

  2. Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, 5841 S. Maryland Ave, MC 5068, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Aasim I. Padela & Farr A. Curlin

  3. Section of Emergency Medicine, Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Aasim I. Padela

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  1. Aasim I. Padela
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  2. Farr A. Curlin
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Correspondence to Aasim I. Padela.

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Padela, A.I., Curlin, F.A. Religion and Disparities: Considering the Influences of Islam on the Health of American Muslims. J Relig Health 52, 1333–1345 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-012-9620-y

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