XPost: misc.news.internet.discuss
From the «but, causality or correlation?» department:
Title: Infant Mortality Rates Higher in Areas with More Christian Fundamentalists
Author: janrinok
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2018 12:25:00 -0400
Link:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/06/19/0635212&from=rss
An Anonymous Coward writes:
Researchers report in areas with greater numbers of Christian
fundamentalists, infant mortality rates are higher than in areas with more mainstream Christians. The study reveals external factors such as lack of social support, birth defects, poverty and lack of insurance, in addition to religious conviction, are the main reasons for the increased mortality rates.
The odds of an infant dying before their first birthday are higher in
counties with greater proportions of conservative Protestants, especially fundamentalists, than in counties with more mainline Protestants and
Catholics, according to a new Portland State University study The study, published online in May in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, supports the idea that the more insular, anti-institutional culture of fundamentalists can lead to poorer health outcomes.
Ginny Garcia-Alexander, a sociology professor in PSU's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences and the study's lead author, examined the influence of religion on postneonatal infant mortality rates, or the number of deaths from four weeks through the first year, using data from 1990 through 2010. Garcia-Alexander said a leading cause of infant death in the first 28 days is birth defects, which can be heavily influenced by advances in medical
knowledge and technology. By contrast, deaths in the next 11 months of life
are more often linked to external factors such as poverty, lack of insurance, social support networks and religion.
Garcia-Alexander said the findings mirror trends seen in adult mortality
rates, where areas with more mainline Protestants and Catholics had better health outcomes than areas with more conservative Protestants.
The study's findings build on previous research that says that Catholicism
and mainline Protestantism are civically minded, externally oriented faiths that emphasize community-level care. For example, church-affiliated hospitals and social-service providers such as Catholic Charities can bolster the
health infrastructure of local communities.
Source:
https://neurosciencenews.com/infant-mortality-fundamentalism-9165/[1] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Submission[2]
Read more of this story[3] at SoylentNews.
Links:
[1]:
https://neurosciencenews.com/infant-mortality-fundamentalism-9165/ (link) [2]:
http://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=27384 (link)
[3]:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/06/19/0635212&from=rss (link)
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