Patient Views on Religious Institutional Health Care

Area of Science:

• Healthcare policy
• Patient autonomy
• Religious healthcare institutions

Background:

• Federal protections permit religious healthcare facilities to limit patient options based on religious values.
• Little is known about patient considerations of religious affiliation when selecting facilities or their views on such limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To understand patient perspectives on religious institutional care and decision-making.
• To investigate whether US adults consider religious affiliation when selecting healthcare facilities.

Main Methods:

• Population-based, cross-sectional survey of US adults (n=1446).
• Recruited from the AmeriSpeak Omnibus panel, administered via internet or telephone in November 2017.
• Analyzed participant characteristics, religiosity, facility selection criteria, and views on religious precedence over health choices.

Main Results:

• Only 6.4% of participants considered religious affiliation when selecting a healthcare facility.
• Most participants (71.3%) did not care about religious affiliation; 13.4% preferred religious, and 15.3% preferred non-religious facilities.
• A majority (71.4%) believed personal health choices should supersede institutional religious values, a view more common among women.

Conclusions:

• Most patients do not consider facility religious affiliation and prioritize personal choice in healthcare decisions.
• Women showed a stronger preference for autonomy over institutional religious restrictions.
• Findings highlight a need for legislation balancing institutional religious protections with patient rights, especially given the rise of religiously-owned facilities.