Abstract
Background: Health-related lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and obesity are major cardiovascular risk factors. Previous studies have mostly demonstrated a favorable association between religiosity and these cardiovascular risk factors; however, no studies have investigated this relationship in Polish immigrants. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the association between health-related lifestyle behaviors and religiosity in Polish immigrants in Germany. Methods: The smoking patterns, frequency of alcohol consumption, physical activity, and presence of overweight/obesity were assessed in 257 first-generation immigrants of Polish origin living in Germany. Religiosity was measured with the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS, Huber, 2003) consisting of 15 items that categorized the respondents into intrinsically, extrinsically, and not/marginally religious. Results: After adjusting for various sociodemographic, migration, and health-related characteristics, intrinsic religiosity was significantly associated with a lower risk of being a smoker (odds ratios (OR) = 0.34, confidence intervals (CI) = 0.15–0.76) and was also associated with a lower risk of alcohol consumption (OR = 0.33, CI = 0.15–0.71), but a higher risk of being overweight/obese (OR = 2.53, CI = 1.15–5.56) in comparison with extrinsic/marginal religiosity. No significant relationship was found between religiosity and physical activity. Conclusions: In Polish immigrants, intrinsic religiosity acts as a protective factor against some cardiovascular risk factors (smoking and alcohol consumption).
Highlights
There has been increasing interest in examining the relationships between religious, spiritual, and health variables in medical and psychological research during the last decades
Most of the Polish immigrants living in Germany are formally German citizens and rank as Germans in statistics; a random sample would, not include them, whereas data collection within the Polish community made it possible to recruit both immigrants of Polish origin with German as well as immigrants with Polish citizenship
Sociodemographic and Migration-Specific Data In Table 1, the main sociodemographic and migration-specific characteristics are presented for the total sample as well as for women and men of Polish origin living in Germany
Summary
There has been increasing interest in examining the relationships between religious, spiritual, and health variables in medical and psychological research during the last decades. Health-related lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and obesity are major cardiovascular risk factors. Previous studies have mostly demonstrated a favorable association between religiosity and these cardiovascular risk factors; no studies have investigated this relationship in Polish immigrants. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the association between health-related lifestyle behaviors and religiosity in Polish immigrants in Germany. Methods: The smoking patterns, frequency of alcohol consumption, physical activity, and presence of overweight/obesity were assessed in 257 first-generation immigrants of Polish origin living in Germany. Conclusions: In Polish immigrants, intrinsic religiosity acts as a protective factor against some cardiovascular risk factors (smoking and alcohol consumption)
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