Predictors of Attitudes toward Genomic Medicine within Six Major Faith Groups: Findings from a survey of 4,939 adults in the United States

Abstract

We examined how religious and spiritual beliefs and practices impact attitudes toward genomic medicine among individuals from six major U.S. religious groups: Black Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, Mainline Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim. We surveyed U.S. adults (N = 4939) assessing their religious affiliation, religious beliefs and practices, and attitudes toward four genomic medicine topics: overall support for genomic medicine, sacredness of life concerns (e.g., concerns about prenatal genetic testing and stem cell research), gene editing concerns, mRNA vaccine concerns. For each religious group, we present their demographic characteristics, unadjusted bivariate correlations, and adjusted regression models examining which religious and spiritual beliefs and practices predict each of the four genomic medicine outcomes (adjusted for demographic characteristics and general covariates). Across 24 adjusted regression models, the most frequent religious beliefs and practices that predicted the four genomic medicine outcome measures were acceptance of evolution, the healthcare values of their spiritual community, perceived religious discrimination, fundamentalist religious beliefs, and integration of religious or spiritual beliefs in daily living. Several general covariates were often significant predictors in the regressions as well, including political orientation, genetic knowledge, and distrust toward the healthcare system. These findings highlight the impact of religious beliefs and practices on attitudes toward genomic medicine within six major religious groups in the U.S.