Acceptability of Friday Sermons as a Modality for Health Promotion and Education

Abstract

Our objective was to assess the acceptability and feasibility of using sermons for health promotion in American Muslim mosque communities by deploying a tailored sermon in two mosque communities. With input from a community advisory board and resident imams, sermons communicated four health-related themes: (i) good health is a grant from Allah, (ii) one's body is trust and must be cared for, (iii) trusting in God's plan does not preclude taking actions to care for oneself, and (iv) community members are caretakers of one another. Self-administered, post-sermon questionnaires asked attendees about the acceptability of the sermon and the sermon-giver, and to identify survey themes. Data analyses involved descriptive statistics and regression modeling to assess variance in acceptability across race/ethnicity and gender. Of the 235 respondents, the majority found the sermon content acceptable and desired to hear health-based sermons more often (72 and 67% respectively). There were no significant differences in acceptability of sermon or sermon-giver by gender or race/ethnicity. Our study demonstrates that theologically-framed health messaging is acceptable within sermons in American Muslim mosque communities. This study underscores the potential utility of mosque sermons for health education programs and for health behavior interventions in American mosques.

Keywords: Community intervention; Community-based participatory research; Health education; Health promotion; Religion and health; Sermons.