Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35010645›Full record

ArticleInternational journal of environmental research and public health2021

Jehovah's Witnesses and Their Compliance with Regulations on Smoking and Blood Treatment.

Barbara Pavlikova, Jitse P van Dijk

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation for cardiogenic shock in a Jehovah's witness.Journal of artificial organs : the official journal of the Japanese Society for Artificial Organs · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Barbara PavlikovaDepartment of Labor Law and Social Welfare Law, Faculty of Law, Comenius University, 810 00 Bratislava, Slovakia.ORCID 0000-0003-1496-8904
Jitse P van DijkDepartment of Community and Occupational Medicine, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9713 AV Groningen, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0003-0225-6811

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) are known as a religious group compliant with the national laws in the case of smoking, but not-compliant when it comes to blood treatment. Their beliefs prevent them from taking part in a blood transfusion, which is widely included in standard methods of a life-saving treatment. The aim of this study was to compare the behavior of JWs regarding their approach to blood treatment and to smoking in relation to legal regulations in the field of health. We measured JWs' compliance with health laws regarding blood treatment and smoking (the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control-FCTC). We used the concept of a semi-autonomous social field by Moore and the theory of planned behavior developed by Ajzen. Our findings show that in the case of JWs, the group rules often prevail over state rules contained in generally-binding legislation. In the case of smoking, this means that they seem compliant to the FCTC and to their group rules. In the case of blood treatment, it seems that they are breaking the national rules, because of their group rules. Breaking the latter can result in exclusion from the JWs community. JWs are compliant with national laws as long as these are congruent with their own group rules. If this is not the case, the group influence is very strong and the fear of exclusion from the JW group is often greater than the potential negative health consequences in real life.

Indexed as

Jehovah's WitnessesChristianityHumansReligion and MedicineSmokingTreatment Refusalbloodcompliancehealth lawsJehovah’s Witnessessmoking

Identifiers

PMID35010645
PMCPMC8751198

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.