A_Wanderer
ONE love, blood, life
I just dug up an article showing that human solidarity is not restricted to the faith based
Doctors' faith disputed as factor in helping poor - Chicago TribuneReligious doctors are more likely to consider their profession a “calling” but no more likely to treat underserved patients than their secular counterparts, according to a new study from the University of Chicago.
The study, based on a mail survey of more than 1,100 American physicians,found that 31 percent of doctors who described themselves as religious reported that they serve primarily poor or uninsured communities, compared with 35 percent of doctors who had no religious affiliation.
Those two figures were statistically equal, but other comparisons showed that doctors were more likely to treat underserved populations if they considered themselves highly spiritual, felt that their religious beliefs influenced their medical practice, or said they were raised in a family that encouraged service to the poor.
Women were also more likely to treat underserved populations than men, and differences were also seen among medical specialties, with psychiatrists and pediatricians showing the highest rate and medical specialists such as neurologists the lowest.
But the lack of a difference among those who reported they regularly attend religious services or who consider religion a driving force in their life suggested a disconnect to researchers.
“I think it challenges the religious communities to think about whether they’re helping physicians make the connection between what religion teaches and how they practice medicine,” said Dr. Farr Curlin, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and lead author on the study, which the Annals of Family Medicine publishes Tuesday.
But Dr. Gene Rudd, senior vice president of the Christian Medical Association, criticized the study’s categorization of people’s beliefs according to a small number of survey questions.
“I would rather have seen some kind of continuum of spiritual commitment,” said. “The data in the article suggests that highly religious and spiritually committed doctors do take care of the poor more.”
Curlin said the questions were intended to measure “intrinsic religiosity,”which he defined as the “extent to which an individual sees religion as acentral motivation or organizing principle in their life.”
He estimated that approximately 20 percent of respondents considered themselves spiritual but not religious.
“There is no objective definition or measure that anyone would agree on as a sign of being spiritual,” said Curlin. “What I think goes into the idea of spirituality for many people is a sense of connection to something transcendent.”
Overall, 26 percent of respondents said they practiced primarily with underserved patients, which Curlin said he found reassuring.
“The glass-half-full interpretation is that a substantial minority of physicians across all these groups, most particularly those who are not religious at all, are caring for the poor,” said Curlin. “Not being religious clearly doesn’t mean that people don’t care about underserved patients.”
Richard Sloan, professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and author of “Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine,” agreed.
According to Sloan, the result supports the view of writers like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins who argue that an atheist can be an extremely moral and ethical person despite not having a religious affiliation.
“This provides evidence of that claim,” said Sloan. “That’s an important finding.”
Curlin previously used data from the same survey to find that the medical community showed high rates of religious belief, and that doctors who are more religious were less likely to present medical options that they considered objectionable, such as abortion and birth control for teenagers.