Religious beliefs or physicians' behavior: what makes a patient more prone to accept a physician to address his/her spiritual issues?

Abstract

The present study aims to understand the relation between religious beliefs, physicians' behavior and patients' opinions regarding Spirituality, religiosity and health (S/R) issues, and what makes a patient more prone to accept a physician to address his/her spiritual issues. A cross-sectional study was carried out in outpatients from a tertiary hospital, and a path analysis was used to examine the direct and indirect relationships between the variables. for the final analysis, 300 outpatients were evaluated. Most patients would like their doctors to address S/R issues but did not feel comfortable to ask them. in contrast, they reported most doctors have never addressed S/R issues, and they believe doctors are not prepared to address these issues. the path analysis revealed that patients' previous experiences with their doctors may be as important as their religious/spiritual beliefs in proneness to accept a physician to address his/her spiritual issues.