The International NERSH Data Pool—A Methodological Description of a Data Pool of Religious and Spiritual Values of Health Professionals from Six Continents
Alex Kappel Kørup,
René dePont Christensen,
Connie Thurøe Nielsen,
Jens Søndergaard,
Nada A Alyousefi,
Giancarlo Lucchetti,
Klaus Baumann,
Eunmi Lee,
Azimatul Karimah,
Parameshwaran Ramakrishnan,
Eckhard Frick,
Arndt Büssing,
Esther Schouten,
Niels Christian Hvidt
Affiliations
Alex Kappel Kørup
Research Unit of General Practice, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C 5000, Denmark
René dePont Christensen
Research Unit of General Practice, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C 5000, Denmark
Connie Thurøe Nielsen
Department of Mental Health Kolding-Vejle, University of Southern Denmark, Vejle 7100, Denmark
Jens Søndergaard
Research Unit of General Practice, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C 5000, Denmark
Nada A Alyousefi
College of Medicine, King Saud University (KSU), Riyadh 11461, Saudi Arabia
Giancarlo Lucchetti
Department of Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Avenida Eugênio de Nascimento s/n-Aeroporto, Juiz de Fora 36038330, MG, Brazil
Klaus Baumann
Caritas Science and Christian Social Work, Faculty of Theology, Albert-Ludwig-University, D-79085 Freiburg, Germany
Eunmi Lee
Caritas Science and Christian Social Work, Faculty of Theology, Albert-Ludwig-University, D-79085 Freiburg, Germany
Azimatul Karimah
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Dr. Soetomo General Hospital, Surabaya 60226, East Java, Indonesia
Parameshwaran Ramakrishnan
Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Eckhard Frick
Research Centre Spiritual Care, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, The University Hospital, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Langerstr. 3, Munich 81675, Germany
Arndt Büssing
Institute of Integrative Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Witten/Herdecke University, Gerhard-Kienle-Weg 4, Herdecke D-58313, Germany
Esther Schouten
Medical Faculty, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, München 81377, Germany
Niels Christian Hvidt
Research Unit of General Practice, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C 5000, Denmark
Collaboration within the recently established Network for Research on Spirituality and Health (NERSH) has made it possible to pool data from 14 different surveys from six continents. All surveys are largely based on the questionnaire by Curlin “Religion and Spirituality in Medicine, Perspectives of Physicians” (RSMPP). This article is a methodological description of the process of building the International NERSH Data Pool. The larger contours of the data are described using frequency statistics. Five subscales in the data pool (including the already established DUREL scale) were tested using Cronbach’s alpha and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). 5724 individuals were included, of which 57% were female and the mean age was 41.5 years with a 95% confidence interval (CI) ranging from 41.2 to 41.8. Most respondents were physicians (n = 3883), nurses (n = 1189), and midwives (n = 286); but also psychologists (n = 50), therapists (n = 44), chaplains (n = 5), and students (n = 10) were included. The DUREL scale was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.92) and PCA confirmed its reliability and unidimensionality. The new scales covering the dimensions of “Religiosity of Health Professionals (HPs)” (α = 0.89), “Willingness of Physicians to Interact with Patients Regarding R/S Issues” (α = 0.79), “Religious Objections to Controversial Issues in Medicine” (α = 0.78), and “R/S as a Calling” (α = 0.82), also proved unidimensional in the PCAs. We argue that the proposed scales are relevant and reliable measures of religious dimensions within the data pool. Finally, we outline future studies already planned based on the data pool, and invite interested researchers to join the NERSH collaboration.
