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Religiosity and Excess Weight Among African-American Adolescents: The Jackson Heart KIDS Study

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Abstract

Recent studies suggest that religion and spirituality can yield health benefits for young African-Americans. We examined the relationship between religious practices, spirituality, and excess weight among African-American adolescents (N = 212) residing in the Deep South. Results from modified Poisson regression analysis indicate that adolescents who prayed daily had a lower prevalence of excess weight (PR 0.77 [95% CI 0.62–0.96]) than those who did not. This relationship was only significant for 12–15 year-old participants in age-stratified analysis. These findings suggest that preventive interventions offered to children and younger adolescents can have implications for weight status across the lifespan.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Center for Research on Men’s Health at Vanderbilt University and grants from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health (Prime Award Number 1 CPIMP091054—Beech); the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HHSN268201800012I—Beech; 1R25HL126145—Beech and Norris; 1K01HL88735—Bruce); the National Institute of Aging (1K02AG059140—Thorpe); the Program for Research on Men’s Health in the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions (P60MD000214—Thorpe) and the Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award (Thorpe). The authors thank Ms. Mary Crump, Ms. Lovie Robinson, Dr. Gerrie Cannon Smith, Dr. London Thompson, Ms. Ashley Wicks, Rev. Thaddeus Williams, and Mr. Willie Wright for their support of this study and participation on the Jackson Heart KIDS Pilot Study Community Advisory Board.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program for Research on Faith and Health, Center for Research on Men’s Health, Vanderbilt University, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN, 37235-1665, USA

    Marino A. Bruce

  2. Center for Medicine, Health and Society, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Marino A. Bruce

  3. Department of Population Health Science, John D. Bower School of Population Health, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA

    Marino A. Bruce, Bettina M. Beech, Keith C. Norris & Roland J. Thorpe Jr.

  4. Myrlie Evers Williams Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA

    Marino A. Bruce, Bettina M. Beech, Keith C. Norris & Roland J. Thorpe Jr.

  5. Department of Biological Sciences, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Tanganyika Wilder

  6. Department of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA

    E. Thomaseo Burton

  7. Children’s Foundation Research Institute, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA

    E. Thomaseo Burton

  8. Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Jylana L. Sheats

  9. David C. Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Keith C. Norris

  10. Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Roland J. Thorpe Jr.

  11. Program for Research on Men’s Health, Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Roland J. Thorpe Jr.

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  1. Marino A. Bruce
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Correspondence to Marino A. Bruce.

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All procedures performed in this study were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the Blinded University’s Institutional Review Board, consistent with US regulations and the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individuals participants included in this study.

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Bruce, M.A., Beech, B.M., Wilder, T. et al. Religiosity and Excess Weight Among African-American Adolescents: The Jackson Heart KIDS Study. J Relig Health 59, 223–233 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-019-00762-5

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