Table 3.
Prevalence and likelihood of preferring to leave decision to the doctor, stratified by patient demographic and religious characteristics, and patient health
| Patient prefers to leave decisions to the doctor (agree/strongly agree) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Patient characteristics‡ | N§ (%) | Bivariate P (χ2) | Multivariate† OR (95% CI) |
| Sex | |||
| Male | 3268 (69) | 0.013 | 1.0 (Referent) |
| Female | 4869 (66) | 0.6 (0.5 to 0.8)* | |
| Race/ethnicity | |||
| Black/African-American | 5949 (68) | 0.001 | 1.0 (Referent) |
| White/Caucasian | 1612 (63) | 1.1 (0.8 to 1.5) | |
| Hispanic/Latino | 199 (72) | 0.97 (0.4 to 2.2) | |
| Other | 340 (69) | 0.92 (0.4 to 2.2) | |
| Education level | |||
| No high school diploma | 1760 (75) | <0.001 | 1.0 (Referent) |
| High school diploma | 2487 (70) | 0.9 (0.7 to 1.2) | |
| Some university or junior university | 2152 (63) | 0.7 (0.5 to 1.0)* | |
| University or postgraduate degree | 1512 (57) | 0.6 (0.4 to 0.9)* | |
| Married | |||
| No | 5696 (68) | <0.001 | 1.0 (Referent) |
| Yes | 2413 (64) | 0.8 (0.6 to 1.1) | |
| Attendance at religious services | |||
| Never | 1672 (65) | 0.12 | 1.0 (Referent) |
| Less than once a week | 3442 (68) | 1.7 (1.2 to 2.3)* | |
| Once a week or more | 2720 (66) | 1.5 (1.1 to 2.1)* | |
| Patient tries hard to carry religious beliefs into all other dealings in life | |||
| Disagree | 1149 (63) | 0.003 | 1.0 (Referent) |
| Agree | 2686 (68) | 1.7 (1.1 to 2.5)* | |
| Strongly agree | 3840 (67) | 1.4 (1.0 to 2.1)* | |
| Self-reported spirituality | |||
| Slightly/not at all | 1548 (67) | 0.71 | 1.0 (Referent) |
| Moderately spiritual | 3162 (67) | 1.4 (1.0 to 1.9) | |
| Very spiritual | 3143 (67) | 1.3 (0.9 to 1.8) | |
| Charlson Comorbidity Index | |||
| 0 | 2728 (66) | 0.29 | 1.0 (Referent) |
| 1 | 1422 (67) | 1.2 (0.8 to 1.7) | |
| 2 | 1286 (69) | 0.98 (0.7 to 1.4) | |
| 3 | 1220 (67) | 0.9 (0.6 to 1.3) | |
| 4+ | 1105 (69) | 1.5 (1.0 to 2.2) | |
| Self-reported health rating | |||
| 81–100 | 967 (71) | <0.001 | 1.0 (Referent) |
| 61–80 | 2224 (66) | 0.6 (0.4 to 1.0)* | |
| 41–60 | 2554 (69) | 0.8 (0.5 to 1.2) | |
| 21–40 | 1132 (63) | 0.5 (0.3 to 0.9)* | |
| 0–20 | 885 (63) | 0.6 (0.3 to 0.9)* | |
| Vulnerable Elder Score | |||
| 0–3 | 3044 (68) | 0.09 | 1.0 (Referent) |
| 4–7 | 1148 (71) | 0.8 (0.6 to 1.1) | |
| 8–11 | 349 (66) | 0.6 (0.4 to 0.8)* | |
p<0.05.
Multivariable analyses include sex, age, race/ethnicity, marital status, education level, Charlson Comorbidity Index, self-rated health score, attendance at religious services, intrinsic religiosity and spirituality. All ORs are adjusted for covariates. However, multivariable analyses of religious parameters cannot be adjusted for other religious parameters owing to collinearity.
Mean age 56.2 years, SD 19.7. For all multivariable logistic regressions, age (in years) was treated as a linear variable (OR=1.019; 95% CI 1.003 to 1.036).
N counts vary slightly owing to partial non-response.