Primary Submission Category: Health systems
Considering Catholic Health Care: Exploring Perceptions of Trust and Discrimination in Religiously Affiliated Health Systems
Authors: Margaret Tait, Robert H. Brehm, Zach Johnson, Kerrissa Macpherson,
Presenting Author: Margaret Tait*
Background: This project explores whether the religious affiliation of health systems is evident to potential patients, and if health systems’ religious affiliation affects perceptions of the quality of care they will receive, decisions to seek health care, and trust in providers. As of December 2024, 13 of the 20 largest health systems in the U.S. were religiously affiliated. We focus specifically on Catholic hospitals and Muslim Americans, a population not considered in previous research on religiously affiliated health systems.
Method: Data from this study come from a series of questions asked on the NORC AmeriSpeak Omnibus in January 2025. We conducted thematic analyses of an open-ended response item assessing if the religious affiliation of a hospital was evident. Additionally, we implemented a Latent Class Analysis (LCA) of data from separate questions to identify distinct subgroups based on their perceptions of discrimination in religiously affiliated health care.
Results: Preliminary results of the open-ended item reveal that many respondents were not aware of the religious affiliations of health systems, suggesting this may not be evident to potential patients. Importantly, Muslims in our sample appear to notice religious affiliations in a material way that other groups do not. From the LCA, Muslim Americans were overrepresented in the group that perceived high levels of discrimination in Catholic hospitals. While 23.1% of the overall sample was classified into this group, 38.3% Muslims were classified into the group.
Conclusion: Understanding how Muslim Americans, as a religious minority, perceive religious affiliation and its impacts on health care can offer important insights into broader patterns of trust and bias in health care delivery. These findings will help uncover how religious affiliation may influence health care seeking-behavior, offering a foundation for further exploration of how such dynamics may impact access and experiences for different patient groups within the U.S. health care system.