Religious minority identity associates with stress and psychological health among Muslim and Hindu women in Bangladesh and London

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Date
2024-02-28
Authors
Dornisch, S. J.
Sievert, L. L.
Sharmeen, T.
Begum, K.
Muttukrishna, Shanthi
Chowdhury, O.
Bentley, G. R.
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.24057
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Abstract
Objectives: This study examined the association of minority religious identification (Hindu or Muslim) with self-reported stress and psychological symptoms among sedentee and immigrant Bangladeshi women. Methods: Women, aged 35–59 (n = 531) were drawn from Sylhet, Bangladesh and London, England. Muslim immigrants in London and Hindu sedentees in Sylhet represented minority religious identities. Muslim sedentees in Sylhet and Londoners of European descent represented majority religious identities. In bivariate analyses, minority religious identity was examined in relation to self-reported measures of stress, nervous tension, and depressed mood. Logistic regression was applied to examine the relationship between these variables while adjusting for marital status, parity, daily walking, and perceived financial comfort. Results: In bivariate analyses, religious minorities reported more stress than religious majorities in all group comparisons (p < .05), and minority Muslims reported more nervous tension and depressed mood than majority Muslims (p < .05). In logistic regression models, minority Muslims had greater odds of high stress than majority Muslims (OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.18–3.39). Minority Muslims had greater odds of stress (OR 3.05, 95% CI 1.51–6.17) and nervous tension (OR 3.37, 95% CI 1.66–6.87) than majority Londoners. Financial comfort reduced odds of stress and symptoms in all models. Conclusions: Socioeconomic situation, immigration history, and minority ethnicity appear to influence the relationship between religious identity and psychosomatic symptoms in Bangladeshi women. Attention to personal and socioeconomic context is important for research examining the association between religion and mental health.
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Keywords
Socioeconomic situation , Immigration history , Minority ethnicity , Religious identity , Psychosomatic symptoms , Bangladeshi women , Personal and socioeconomic context , Religion , Mental health
Citation
Dornisch, S. J., Sievert, L. L., Sharmeen, T., Begum, K., Muttukrishna, S., Chowdhury, O. and Bentley, G. R. (2024) 'Religious minority identity associates with stress and psychological health among Muslim and Hindu women in Bangladesh and London', American Journal of Human Biology, e24057. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.24057
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https://hdl.handle.net/10468/16194
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Obstetrics & Gynaecology - Journal articles
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© 2024, Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is the peer reviewed version of the following item: Dornisch, S. J., Sievert, L. L., Sharmeen, T., Begum, K., Muttukrishna, S., Chowdhury, O. and Bentley, G. R. (2024) 'Religious minority identity associates with stress and psychological health among Muslim and Hindu women in Bangladesh and London', American Journal of Human Biology, e24057, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.24057. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.