Faith-Based Factors That Influence African American Charismatic Christians' Adherence to Medication for Chronic Diseases

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African Americans are at a higher risk of being diagnosed with, and dying from, one or more chronic diseases than any other racial or ethnic group. Many afflicted individuals in this population turn to faith-based factors such as prayer and faith to help them manage and cope with their disease, as well as to help them adhere, or not, to prescribed medications. In this study the process of phenomenological inquiry was used to explore the lived experiences of a sample of African American Charismatic Christians (AACC) with chronic diseases, as well as to explore the participants’ beliefs, perceptions, and behavioral attitudes concerning choices about medical compliance. Eighteen members of an AACC church in southern Colorado completed in-person semistructured interviews. The interviews were used to gather information about the participants’ experiences of living with a chronic disease, family history, health history, types of prescribed medications, adherence importance, expectations of others, pressure from others, effectiveness or ineffectiveness of medications, motivating and demotivating factors to adherence, and barriers to adherence. Content coding and analyses of the interviews followed the stepwise process originally proposed by Moustakas and identified 6 key themes: (a) dissatisfaction about being diagnosed with a chronic disease and having to alter one’s lifestyle, (b) importance of adherence to medications, (c) a belief that God can work through the medication when prayer is used, (d) motivating factors to adhere to medications, (e) barriers to adhering to medications, and (f) expectations of others to adhere to medications. These results are discussed in terms of Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior. This study may lead to social change by informing healthcare professionals about faith-based factors that may influence AACC patients with chronic diseases.