Reasons Why High Religiosity Can Co-exist with and Precipitate Discontinuation of Anti-retroviral Therapy among Different HIV Clients in Uganda: An Exploratory Study
Journal Title: Religions - Year 2012, Vol 3, Issue 3
Abstract
In-depth interviews were conducted with 39 very religious people living with HIV (16 had ever and 23 had never discontinued antiretroviral therapy—ART) to assess the role of religion in these treatment decisions and in coping with HIV. Participants who had ever discontinued ART gave reasons such as: teachings and prophecies from religious leaders, and supporting Biblical scriptures all of which led them to feel that God and their faith, not ART, would help them; and testimonies by their ―already healed‖ peers who had stopped ART. Participants who had never discontinued ART gave reasons such as continuous adherence counseling from multiple sources, improvement in physical health as a result of ART, and beliefs that God heals in different ways and that non-adherence is equal to putting God to a test. High religiosity was reported to help participants cope with HIV through engagement in personal and or community protective behaviours, ―taking care of other illness‖, and reducing worries. When high religiosity among people living with HIV (PHAs) becomes a barrier to ART adherence, the adherence counseling provided can draw on experiences of PHAs with high religiosity who have sustained good adherence to ART and achieved good health outcomes.
Authors and Affiliations
Christopher Tumwine, Stella Neema and Glenn Wagner
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP25269
- DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel3030817
- Views 315
- Downloads 16
Bringing the Congregations Back in: Religious Markets, Congregational Density, and American Religious Participation
We draw on the organizational ecology tradition to frame the relationship between the religious environment of a community and local religious participation. Prior research linking religious environments to religious p...
Science’s Big Problem, Reincarnation’s Big Potential, and Buddhists’ Profound Embarrassment
Scientific materialism is the largely unquestioned basis for modern science’s understanding of life. It also holds enormous sway beyond science and thus has increasingly marginalized religious perspectives. Yet it is e...
Religious Authority in African American Churches: A Study of Six Churches
A sociological study of religious authority and gender in the context of a rural, impoverished community was conducted in African American churches in one county of the Arkansas Lower Mississippi Delta region to unders...
Research Note: College Students’ Attitudes toward Christianity in Xi’an, China
Atheism is the mainstream belief system in contemporary China. In recent years, a growing number of Chinese have converted to different religions, particularly Christianity. In this study, we conducted a survey in the...
Mourning, Memorials, and Religion: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Park51 Controversy
This article summarizes a version of the “mourning religion” thesis—derived from the work of Peter Homans and further developed and advanced by William Parsons, Diane Jonte-Pace, and Susan Henking—and then demonstrates...