SynthesisBMC public health2025
Approaches to engaging faith communities in public health efforts regarding vaccination, genetics, and colorectal cancer: a systematic review.
Synthesis in BMC public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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.
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.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Veritas amid Post-truth: Catholic Ethics and the Moral Conditions of Philippine Public Health.Journal of religion and health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPublic health professionals regularly engage faith communities to improve public health. This systematic review characterizes approaches that public health professionals have used to engage faith communities and evaluates them using the Theory of Planned Behavior. It examines engagement regarding vaccination and genetic and genomic healthcare, which have generated significant controversy within religious groups and, for comparison, colorectal cancer screening, which has not.
methodsThis systematic review followed PRISMA reporting guidelines. We searched 8 online databases (e.g., Medline, Embase, Scopus). Publications in English that reported engaging a faith community on genetics, vaccination, or colorectal cancer screening were included. We screened 13,117 articles and extracted information from 121 articles reporting on 96 distinct projects.
resultsThis review includes 121 articles reporting on 96 distinct projects. 67% of projects took place in the United States. Of these, 73% reported engaging racial or ethnic minorities; only 5% of projects reported engaging primarily White, Christian communities. Only 35% of projects reported addressing religious values that might inform attitudes and beliefs. The majority of publications (n = 74; 77.1%) reported primarily engaging faith communities for reasons unrelated to faith.
conclusionBecause the Theory of Planned Behavior is widely used and our focus was on faith communities, we expected to see engagement with faith values and beliefs that might inform attitudes toward behaviors or social pressures community members perceive. Fewer than half of the projects reported addressing values or attitudes. There are missed opportunities to engage faith communities on religiously controversial public health initiatives in ways that are most likely to affect health behaviors. Evaluation of the outcomes of such engagement is needed.
trial registrationThe protocol is registered on Open Science Framework (OSF) at osf.io/r2c9n.
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Registered trials
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.