Associations Between Religious Coping and Subjective Health Among Muslim Americans

Religious coping strategies are often used during difficult times, including health-related challenges. The role of religious coping strategies in health outcomes among minority groups is understudied. Among Muslims, religiosity serves as a framework for navigating life experiences, which often include health-related behaviors and outcomes. This study investigated the relationship between religious coping and subjective health among Muslim Americans. Participants (N = 1,278) completed a voluntary, self-administered survey that assessed measures of religious coping and self-rated health status.Both negative and positive religious coping were significantly correlated with health status. Utilizing an ordered logistic regression model, we found that higher positive religious coping scores were associated with better overall subjective health. Inversely, negative religious coping scores demonstrated an adverse effect on overall subjective health. Additionally, gender was a strong predictor of overall subjective health, as respondents who identified as male reported higher subjective health scores. The findings suggest that Muslims living in the US use religious coping in their daily lives and that positive and negative religious coping are both independent predictors of overall subjective Muslim health.