Public beliefs about involvement of religious institutions with obesity

Abstract

While some social institutions, including medicine, government, and education, have mobilized to deal with obesity, it is unclear what role religious organizations play. Little is known about what the public thinks religious organizations should be doing about obesity. We analyzed the nationally‐representative, cross‐sectional 2011 Cornell National Social Survey (n=997) to examine public opinion about whether religious institutions should play a role in addressing obesity. We examined whether opinions were predicted by religiousness, political ideology, and body weight, controlling for sociodemographics. Overall, 8% of respondents strongly agreed that religious organizations should help to deal with obesity in the US, 21% agreed, 16% were uncertain, 29% disagreed, and 26% strongly disagreed. People with higher religious attendance were more likely to agree, but political ideology, religious affiliation, and body weight were not predictive of opinions about this issue. Results from this study suggest that the public is divided over whether religious organizations should deal with obesity and may suggest a lack of public consensus about the type of involvement these organizations should have.Grant Funding Source: No grant funding