Atheist doctors more likely to care for the poor than religious ones
Submitted by Vidura Panditaratne on Tue, 2007-07-31 12:32.
Atheist doctors are likely to practice medicine among the underprivileged
than religious physicians, even though most religions call on the faithful
to serve the poor, according to the results of large cross-sectional survey
of US medical practitioners published in Annals of Family Medicine.
Researchers from the University of Chicago and Yale New Haven Hospital
report that 31 percent of physicians who were more religious-as measured by
"intrinsic religiosity" as well as frequency of attendance at religious
services-practiced among the underserved, compared to 35 percent of
physicians who described their religion as atheist, agnostic or none.
"This came as both a surprise and a disappointment," study author Farr
Curlin, MD, said. "The Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist
scriptures all urge physicians to care for the poor, and the great majority
of religious physicians describe their practice of medicine as a calling.
Yet we found that religious physicians were not more likely to report
practice among the underserved than their secular colleagues."
Physicians avoid spending the bulk of their time caring for the poor as it
could mean forgoing professional prestige, free time and academic
opportunities.
They found that even though they received reduced salaries, decreased
support staff and faced constant bureaucratic interference, physicians who
care for the underprivileged receive intangible rewards in exchange, such as
a sense that they make a difference in society, have a positive impact on
the lives of large groups of patients and have aligned their jobs with their
altruistic aspirations.
Curlin and colleagues surveyed 1,820 practicing physicians from all
specialties of whom 1,144 (63%) responded.
The survey contained questions about what the researchers called intrinsic
religiosity-the extent to which individuals embrace their religion as the
"master motive that guides and gives meaning to their life."
Researchers asked physicians if they agreed or disagreed with two
statements: "I try hard to carry my religious beliefs over into all my other
dealings in life," and "My whole approach to life is based on my religion."
They were also asked how often they attended religious services.
The survey also included questions about whether the physicians considered
medicine a calling, whether their religious beliefs influence their practice
of medicine, and whether the family in which they were raised emphasized
helping those with few resources.
Physicians who strongly agreed that their religious beliefs influence their
practice of medicine were more likely to report practice among the
under-served, but, physicians who were more religious in general, as
measured by their intrinsic religiosity or their frequency of attending
religious services, were not more likely to practice among the under-served.
Even the more religious physicians who reported that their families
emphasized service to the poor and that, for them, the practice of medicine
was a calling, were no more likely to practice among the poor.
Curlin and colleagues also noted that those who identified themselves as
very spiritual, whether or not they were religious, were roughly twice as
likely to care for the under-served as those who described their
spirituality as low.
"Part of this divergence between religion and spirituality can be traced to
a rift between Christian denominations in the late-19th and early-20th
centuries," explained Curlin, who describes himself as an orthodox Christian
in the Protestant tradition.
According to the author, about a hundred years ago many of the mainline and
liberal Protestant churches began "to emphasize efforts to right social
injustices, while the more conservative churches tended to stress doctrinal
orthodoxy. Research indicates that those who consider themselves spiritual
but not so religious are more likely to be formed in the more liberal
denominations."
Policy makers and medical educators hoping to increase the physician supply
for underserved populations should take these results into account
cautiously, the authors recommended.
"No one knows how to select medical students in a way that would actually
increase the number of physicians eager to serve the underserved," Curlin
said, "but our findings suggest that admissions officials should ignore both
the general religiousness of candidates and their professed sense of calling
to medicine."
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