Alex Kappel Kørup, - and René dePont Christensen, - and Connie Thurøe Nielsen, - and Jens Søndergaard, - and Nada A. Alyousefi, - and Giancarlo Lucchetti, - and Klaus Baumann, - and Eunmi Lee, - and Azimatul Karimah, - and Parameshwaran Ramakrishnan, - and Eckhard Frick, - and Arndt Büssing, - and Esther Schouten, - and Niels Christian Hvidt, - (2017) The International NERSH Data Pool—A Methodological Description of a Data Pool of Religious and Spiritual Values of Health Professionals from Six Continents. Religions, 8 (2). pp. 1-15. ISSN 2077-1444

	Text (Similarity) 4.pdf Download (3MB)
	Text (Artikel) 4.pdf Download (328kB)
	Text (Artikel) 4.pdf Download (464kB)

Abstract

Collaboration within the recently established Network for Research on Spirituality and Health (NERSH) has made it possible to pool data from 14 different surveys from six continents. All surveys are largely based on the questionnaire by Curlin “Religion and Spirituality in Medicine, Perspectives of Physicians” (RSMPP). This article is a methodological description of the process of building the International NERSH Data Pool. The larger contours of the data are described using frequency statistics. Five subscales in the data pool (including the already established DUREL scale) were tested using Cronbach’s alpha and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). 5724 individuals were included, of which 57% were female and the mean age was 41.5 years with a 95% confidence interval (CI) ranging from 41.2 to 41.8. Most respondents were physicians (n = 3883), nurses (n = 1189), and midwives (n = 286); but also psychologists (n = 50), therapists (n = 44), chaplains (n = 5), and students (n = 10) were included. The DUREL scale was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.92) and PCA confirmed its reliability and unidimensionality. The new scales covering the dimensions of “Religiosity of Health Professionals (HPs)” (α = 0.89), “Willingness of Physicians to Interact with Patients Regarding R/S Issues” (α = 0.79), “Religious Objections to Controversial Issues in Medicine” (α = 0.78), and “R/S as a Calling” (α = 0.82), also proved unidimensional in the PCAs. We argue that the proposed scales are relevant and reliable measures of religious dimensions within the data pool. Finally, we outline future studies already planned based on the data pool, and invite interested researchers to join the NERSH collaboration.

Actions (login required)

View Item