The DOI matches its Crossref record; 51 of the 51 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Religious characteristics of U.S. physicians: A national survey
Open accessAbstract
Background Patients' religious commitments and religious communities are known to influence their experiences of illness and their medical decisions. Physicians are also dynamic partners in the doctor-patient relationship, yet little is known about the religious characteristics of physicians or how physicians' religious commitments shape the clinical encounter.Objective To provide a baseline description of physicians' religious characteristics, and to compare physicians' characteristics with those of the general U.S. population.Design/participants Mailed survey of a stratified random sample of 2,000 practicing U.S. physicians. Comparable U.S. population data are derived from the 1998 General Social Survey.Measurements/results The response rate was 63%. Fifty-five percent of physicians say their religious beliefs influence their practice of medicine. Compared with the general population, physicians are more likely to be affiliated with religions that are underrepresented in the United States, less likely to say they try to carry their religious beliefs over into all other dealings in life (58% vs 73%), twice as likely to consider themselves spiritual but not religious (20% vs 9%), and twice as likely to cope with major problems in life without relying on God (61% vs 29%).Conclusions Physicians' religious characteristics are diverse and they differ in many ways from those of the general population. Researchers, medical educators, and policy makers should further examine the ways in which physicians' religious commitments shape their clinical engagements.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Interestingly, Curlin et al.26 reported that family physicians and pediatricians are more religious than physicians from other specialties.”
From How psychiatrists think about religious and spiritual beliefs in clinical practice: findings from a university hospital in São Paulo, Brazil (2019) · cites this paper as [26]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
The Association of American Medical Colleges
ZAPFFE, F. C. (1938) · Academic Medicine · doi:10.1097/00001888-193801000-00007 · Cited by 5,527
Personal religious orientation and prejudice.
Āllport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0021212 · Cited by 4,177
Handbook of Religion and Health
Koenig, H. G., McCullough, M. E., & Larson, D. B. (2004) · American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/00019442-200405000-00015 · Cited by 3,262
Handbook of Religion and Health
Koenig, H., McCullough, M., & Larson, D. (2001) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195118667.001.0001 · Cited by 2,581
Four Models of the Physician-Patient Relationship
Emanuel, E. J. (1992) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.1992.03480160079038 · Cited by 2,453
Charon, R. (2001) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.286.15.1897 · Cited by 2,351
The Religion-Health Connection: Evidence, Theory, and Future Directions
Ellison, C. G., & Levin, J. S. (1998) · Health Education & Behavior · doi:10.1177/109019819802500603 · Cited by 1,496
Underwood, L. G., & Teresi, J. A. (2002) · Annals of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1207/s15324796abm2401_04 · Cited by 1,212
The Emerging Meanings of Religiousness and Spirituality: Problems and Prospects
Zinnbauer, B. J., Pargäment, K. I., & Scott, A. B. (1999) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/1467-6494.00077 · Cited by 982
Personal Religious Orientation and Prejudice.
Āllport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.5.4.432 · Cited by 836
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Daaleman TP, Frey B. Spiritual and religious beliefs and practices of family physicians. J Fam Practice. 1999;48:98–104.
- Groves RM, Fowler FJ, Couper MP, Lepkowski JM, Singer E, Tourangeau R. Survey Methodology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2004:321–8.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 201–242 of 242
Ethical Handling of Religious and Spiritual Issues: South Asian Perspective
Kalra, G., Shah, N., Deakin, N. A., & Bhugra, D. (2014) · International library of ethics, law, and the new medicine/The international library of ethics, law, and the new medicine · doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9017-8_3 · Cited by 1
The Ethics and the Meaning of Life among College Students
Jardim, M. H. D. A. G., da Silva, G. B., Alves, M. L. S. D., de Gouveia, B. R. F. O., & Silva, R. M. L. B. (2018) · International Journal of Clinical Medicine · doi:10.4236/ijcm.2018.94019 · Cited by 1
End of Life Issues in Behavioral Medicine
Masters, K. S., Kilbourn, K. M., & Barrett, C. E. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-0-387-93826-4_34 · Cited by 1
Muslim Psychiatrists in Training Address Islamophobia in Clinical Experiences
El‐Majzoub, S., & Fatmi, M. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-00512-2_17 · Cited by 1
Birds of a Feather? Genetic Counseling, Genetic Testing, and HumanismPreprint
Resta, R. G. (2019) · Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine · doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a036673 · Cited by 1
Hatcher, S. (2014) · Scholarship@Western (Western University)
The Existential Dimension of Cancer
Cordella, M., & Poiani, A. (2013) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-9605-2_4
Zimmerman, R. K., & Raviotta, J. M. (2013) · Vaccine · doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2013.02.021
HIV clinic caregivers’ spiritual and religious attitudes and behaviors
Catlin, E. A., Guillemin, J. H., Freedman, J., & Thiel, M. M. (2010) · Health · doi:10.4236/health.2010.27120
LoboPrabhu, S., Pargäment, K. I., & Lomax, J. W. (2015) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.84052-0
The spiritual capital scale: development and psychometric properties
Golparvar, M., & Javadian, Z. (2016) · Journal of Research and Health
Spiritual Care Providers and Goals-of-Care Discussions
Barot, N., & Yu, K. M. (2016) · JAMA Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.7890
Religiosity, Spirituality, and End-of-Life Planning: A Single-Site Survey of Medical
Karches, K. E., Chung, G. S., Arora, V. M., Meltzer, D. O., & Curlin, F. A. (2012)
The Challenge and Inescapability of Moral Pluralism
Kaldjian, L. C. (2014) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511997891.008
Cultural Hemorrhage of Religion and Spirituality on Healthcare and Wellness
Topor, F. S. (2016) · Advances in human and social aspects of technology book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-0522-8.ch015
Pawlikowski, J., & Dobrowolska, B. B. (2016)
The Need for Global Standards in Biomedical Ethics and the Qualitative Methodology
Topor, F. S. (2016) · Advances in human and social aspects of technology book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-0522-8.ch010
Giving End-of-Life Spiritual Care
Perkins, H. S. (2016) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-6804-6_14
Sepper, E. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108658867.010
Vukojević, M., Dodaj, A., Zovko, A., Brekalo, Z., Galić, K., Kvesić, A., & Splavski, B. (2020) · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-108199/v1
Individual Physician Assistant's Spirituality and Job Satisfaction
Smisek, K. J., Hovelson, K. L., & Langlie, M. D. (2016)
The tacit bargain in short-term medical missions
Caldron, P. H. (2016) · doi:10.26481/dis.20161123pc
The Need for Global Standards in Biomedical Ethics and the Qualitative Methodology
Topor, F. S. (2017) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-3158-6.ch004
Cultural Hemorrhage of Religion and Spirituality on Healthcare and Wellness
Topor, F. S. (2020) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-2457-2.ch019
Eskola, L. (2022) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-10843-3_13
Medical Professionalism from a Virtue Ethics Perspective
Sotomayor, C. R., & Sheehan, M. N. (2022) · The International Library of Bioethics · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-09733-1_7
O ensino da espiritualidade na graduação em saúde: um olhar reflexivo
Chalegre, C. T., Gomes, A. D. S., de Moura, V. M. H., de Vasconcelos, E. M. R., & Frazão, I. D. S. (2023) · Revista Científica Multidisciplinar Núcleo do Conhecimento · doi:10.32749/nucleodoconhecimento.com.br/saude/ensino-da-espiritualidade
Hefti, R., Eglin, M., & Leiggener, C. S. (2023) · Spiritual Care · doi:10.1515/spircare-2023-0008
Religiosidade dos profissionais de saúde que atuaram na linha de frente da pandemia de COVID-19
Couto, M. E. C., Chemello, D., & Chagas, P. (2024) · Psico · doi:10.15448/1980-8623.2024.1.43046
Fernandes, N. E., & Rustomfram, N. (2025) · Archive for the Psychology of Religion · doi:10.1177/00846724251329367 · Cited by 1
Oswald, M. S., & Chen, D. T. (2025) · Journal of Medical Humanities · doi:10.1007/s10912-025-09958-1
The volitional approach to surrogate decision making
Randall, P., & Gligorov, N. (2025) · Metamedicine · doi:10.1007/s11017-025-09720-7
Jacobs, L. M., Gurewitz, J., Hurwitz, J., Shah, A., Goodman, K. A., & Lymberis, S. C. (2025) · Practical Radiation Oncology · doi:10.1016/j.prro.2025.03.012
Lee, Y. J., Borah, P., Irom, B., Mu, D., Seo, H. Y., & Joo, J. (2025) · Journal of Intercultural Communication Research · doi:10.1080/17475759.2025.2582037
Menegatti-Chequini, M. C., Loch, A. A., Leão, F. C., Peres, M. F. P., & Vallada, H. (2020) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.13279173
Nunes, A. P. D. A., Lucchetti, A., de Oliveira, R. G., Firmino, A. J. D. F., Ezequiel, O. D. S., & Lucchetti, G. (2026) · European journal of dental education · doi:10.1111/eje.70090
A Short “Scrubbing” Prayer as a Potentially Valuable Addition to Preoperative Preparation
Linos, D. A., Angelos, P., & Papazoglou, Α. S. (2026) · The American Surgeon · doi:10.1177/00031348261429450
Muslim Psychiatrists in Training Address Islamophobia in Clinical Experiences
El‐Majzoub, S., Fatmi, M., & Moffic, H. S. (2026) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-16483-4_18
Reframing multiple sclerosis care: Integrating psychological, somatic, and spiritual dimensions
Codreanu‐Balaban, R. A., Petrescu, R., DULCEATA, I. M., Vranau, D., Petrov, S. G., Gogu, A. E., Jianu, D. C., Muja, L. F., Axelerad, A. D., & Ciocan, T.-C. (2026) · Dialogo · doi:10.51917/dialogo.2026.12.2.7
Metadata
- Authors
- Curlin, F. A., Lantos, J. D., Roach, C. J., Sellergren, S. A., & Chin, M. H.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- Curlin, Farr A.
- Venue
- Journal of General Internal Medicine
- Published
- 2005-07
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 629-634
- ISSN
- 0884-8734 (ISSN-L)
- 1525-1497
- PMC
- PMC1490160
- OpenAlex
- W1992405972
- Cited by
- 242
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 10.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of General Internal Medicine (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Greenwall Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Religion and Society Interactions
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Workplace Spirituality and Leadership
- Keywords
- religion and medicine, spiritual but not religious, religious affiliation, physician-patient relationship, religious commitment, general population comparison
- MeSH terms
- Attitude of Health Personnel, Humans, Physicians, Surveys and Questionnaires, Religion, Religion and Medicine, United States, Spirituality
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
