Table 3.
Obstetrician–gynecologists’ beliefs about counseling according to religious beliefs and practices
| Agree that counseling about safe sex reduces risky behaviors |
Agree that counseling about abstinence reduces sexual activity |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Religious affiliation | n (%) | Pa | Odd ratio (95% CI)b |
n (%) | Pa | Odds ratio (95% CI)b |
| No affiliation | 98 (82) | 0.5 | 1.0 referent | 20 (17) | <0.001 | 1.0 referent |
| Hindu | 85 (92) | 1.8 (0.4–8.5) | 37 (43) | |||
| Jew | 137 (87) | 1.8 (0.8–3.9) | 26 (18) | 1.2 (0.6–2.4) | ||
| Muslim | 49 (93) | 2.2 (0.6–7.5) | 19 (33) | 2.1 (0.8–5.3) | ||
| Catholic/Orthodox Christian | 231 (89) | 1.4 (0.7–2.9) | 86 (34) | 2.7 (1.5–4.8) | ||
| Evangelical Protestant | 76 (84) | 1.3 (0.6–3.0) | 48 (52) | 5.3 (2.7–10.5) | ||
| Non-Evangelical Protestant | 262 (88) | 1.5 (0.8–2.9) | 89 (29) | 2.0 (1.1–3.5) | ||
| Other religion | 45 (91) | 2.0 (0.6–7.0) | 18 (34) | 2.5 (1.0–6.1) | ||
| Importance of religion | ||||||
| Not at all important | 231 (84) | 0.2 | 1.0 referent | 49 (18) | <0.001 | 1.0 referent |
| Fairly important | 281 (87) | 1.4 (0.8–2.4) | 100 (30) | 1.9 (1.2–3.0) | ||
| Very important | 347 (90) | 2.0 (1.1–3.4) | 122 (32) | 2.2 (1.4–3.4) | ||
| Most important | 133 (86) | 1.3 (0.7–2.4) | 76 (52) | 5.0 (3.1–8.2) | ||
| Attend services | ||||||
| Never | 106 (86) | 0.7 | 1.0 referent | 28 (23) | <0.001 | 1.0 referent |
| ≤1 a month | 477 (87) | 1.1 (0.6–2.2) | 138 (24) | 1.1 (0.7–1.9) | ||
| ≥2 a month | 410 (88) | 1.3 (0.7–2.5) | 181 (39) | 2.2 (1.3–3.7) | ||
a
P values reflect the bivariate association between background characteristics and beliefs about safe-sex or abstinence counseling.
b
Results of multivariate logistic regression. Analysis includes sex, race, immigration history, board certification, age, and region.