Medical illness, religion, health control and depression of institutionalized medically ill veterans in long-term care

✍ Scribed by Martin Grosse-Holtforth; Ajay Pathak; Harold G. Koenig; Harvey J. Cohen; Carl F. Pieper; Linda G. Vanhook

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 686 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(199607)11:7<613::aid-gps357>3.0.co;2-w

✦ Synopsis

Utilizing multivariable multivariate regression procedures, we examine the relationships among medical illness, religion, health control beliefs and depression in 97 mostly elderly, institutionalized medically ill veterans in long term-care. Controlling for other domains of indicators, conditional canonical correlations showed that (1) religious motivation alone predicts religious coping, (2) religious coping alone predicts health control beliefs, and (3) both severity of illness/length of stay and health control beliefs predict depression. Result (1) is incompatible with the prediction by the multivariate belief-motivation theory of religiousness (MBMTR) (Schaefer and Gorsuch, 1991) that both religious belief and religious motivation determine religious coping. Results (2) and (3) are consistent with our hypothesis that control beliefs mediate the relationship between religious coping and depression. It is argued that a different operationalization of religious belief may still support the MBMTR. The role of religion in coping with health problems is discussed.

KEY woms-control beliefs; depression; elderly; medically ill; nursing home; religion Despite considerable interest in religiosity as it relates to mental health in elderly, medically ill and institutionalized populations (Idler, 1987; Koenig, 1988; Utsch, 1992), attempts have rarely been made to clarify the relationships among specific aspects of religion and depression in this setting. This study attempts to fill this gap by interviewing a sample of medically ill institutionalized veterans. We will test predictions of the multivariate beliefmotivation theory of religiousness (MBMTR) (Schaefer and 991) about the determinants of religious coping and will examine a