Cincinnati, UPI, Monday, May 7, 2007 — University of Cincinnati researchers have received a two-year grant to study how U.S. religious groups respond to AIDS victims.
Dr. Joel Tsevat and Magdalena Szaflarski, both researchers at the university's Institute for the Study of Health, will examine how religious organizations treat people with the human immunodeficiency virus in their communities.
The new study followed previous University of Cincinnati research that revealed people living with the HIV virus feel alienated by their churches following diagnosis and that both black and white patients felt alienated from their religious communities after HIV diagnosis.
The study — funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development — will involve interviews with 150 different religious organizations in the Cincinnati area, comparing those responses with 60 HIV/AIDS patients who have or haven't felt welcome in their congregations.
"There isn't much research on how churches, synagogues and other places of worship feel about HIV or AIDS, and the research that was done is mostly from the 1980s and 90s," Szaflarski said, adding the study will also describe the current levels of HIV-related involvement on the part of religious organizations.
Home |