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Do Religious Physicians Disproportionately Care for the Underserved?

¹ Department of Medicine, Section of General Internal Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill
² MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill
³ Department of Medicine, Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Conn
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, Section of General Pediatrics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Farr Curlin, MD Department of Medicine Section of General Internal Medicine University of Chicago 5841 S Maryland Ave Chicago, IL 60637 fcurlin{at}uchicago.edu

PURPOSE Religious traditions call their members to care for the poor and marginalized, yet no study has examined whether physicians’ religious characteristics are associated with practice among the underserved. This study examines whether physicians’ self-reported religious characteristics and sense of calling in their work are associated with practice among the underserved.

METHODS This study entailed a cross-sectional survey by mail of a stratified random sample of 2,000 practicing US physicians from all specialties.

RESULTS The response rate was 63%. Twenty-six percent of US physicians reported that their patient populations are considered underserved. Physicians who were more likely to report practice among the underserved included those who were highly spiritual (multivariate odds ratio [OR] = 1.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1–2.7], those who strongly agreed that their religious beliefs influenced their practice of medicine (OR = 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1–2.5), and those who strongly agreed that the family in which they were raised emphasized service to the poor (OR = 1.7; 95% CI, 1.0–2.7). Physicians who were more religious in general, as measured by intrinsic religiosity or frequency of attendance at religious services, were much more likely to conceive of the practice of medicine as a calling but not more likely to report practice among the underserved.

CONCLUSIONS Physicians who are more religious do not appear to disproportionately care for the underserved.

Key Words: Religion • spirituality • medically underserved area • poverty • access to health care • barriers • community health care • public health

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