Religion as a social determinant of women's cancer screening: Evidence from state level data for policy and resource allocation

Religion as a Social Determinant of Health (SDOH) is established in relevant literature. The challenge is to translate the theoretical and empirical relationship between religion and health to practical applications and policymaking to build partnerships between state government entities and faith-based organizations. Our manuscript focuses on the connection between adherence to religion and the pernicious public health problem of cancer in women. Using publicly available state level data and Ordinary Least Square regression analysis, we identify the SDOH, including adherence to religion, that are associated with state level rates of cancer screening for women. We confirm that states with higher levels of adherence to religion have higher rates of cancer screening for women including Pap smear and mammogram. Our results show that the magnitude of the effect of adherence to religion and state level rates of cancer screening for women is similar to that of other key SDOH. Our results provide state-level targets for population health improvements that should be addressed with policy that recognizes and encourages partnerships with faith-based organizations to improve health for women.