Demystifying African American Spirituality: Exploring the Measurement of Spirituality in the Context of Medical Decision-Making

Abstract

Many African Americans experiencing serious illness rely on their faith or spirituality to navigate the complex systemic inequities of the United States healthcare system. Yet, African American patient's faith affirmations, beliefs, and spirituality are seldom explored or understood by their clinicians. Despite the urgent need to improve palliative care utilization by this underserved and understudied patient demographic, limited research has been performed to operationally define and quantify how religious belief and/or spirituality affect medical decision-making in African American patients. While a literature search for a tool to measure the concept of African American religiosity or spirituality in medical decision-making produced no results, this review examines three valid and reliable instruments, the DUREL, the RBEC, and the FACIT-Sp-12, that palliative care clinicians and researchers may adapt or supplement with Patient Centered Outcome Research developed items to investigate the influence of faith, spirituality, and religious belief in medical decision-making within the African American patient population.