Research Data Repositories

Cancer Screening among Chicagoland Muslim Women

Overview: This research project represented a collaboration between Initiative of Islam and Medicine and the Council for the Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC). The project was funded through the Institute for Translational Medicine at the University of Chicago Community Project Mini-Award, American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant (IRG-58-004), and a Mentored Research Scholar Grant in Applied and Clinical Research, MRSG-14-032-01-CPPB, from the American Cancer Society. Our goal was to assess the impact of concerns for modesty and fatalistic attitudes on cancer screening rates within the American Muslim community through self-administered surveys. For more information on Muslim American breast cancer disparities, check out our, ‘Developing Religiously Tailored Intervention’ webpage.

American Muslim Cultural Challenges with U.S. Healthcare

Overview: This research project was in collaboration with the University of Michigan, ACCESS, the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), and the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan (CIOM). Principal project funding obtained through the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. The Institute for Social Policy & Understanding provided supplemental project funding. We explored American Muslims healthcare beliefs, how they interact with the healthcare system, and the challenges they face within the US healthcare system through surveys and focus group interviews.

National Survey of Muslim Physician Attitudes towards Religion and Medicine

Overview: This project provided insight into the lives of American Muslim physicians as they negotiate their identity as Muslims with their identity as medical professionals within a multicultural and pluralistic society. The project was funded by the University of Chicago’s Program on Medicine and Religion Faculty Scholars Program through the John Templeton Foundation. The project focused on the ways Islam influences American Muslim physicians’ medical practices and informs their professional identities. Additionally, we explored American Muslim physicians’ experiences with religion-based workplace discrimination. Alongside the empirical inquiry, we engaged with the philosophical and ethical traditions of Islam as they relate to conceptions of healing and the moral formation of physicians.

Previously Published Findings

Cancer Screening Among Chicagoland Muslim Women

Padela, A. I., Murrar, S., Adviento, B., Liao, C., Hosseinian, Z., Peek, M., & Curlin, F. (2015). Associations between religion-related factors and breast cancer screening among American Muslims.Journal of immigrant and minority health,17(3), 660-669.
Vu, M., Azmat, A., Radejko, T., & Padela, A. I. (2016). Predictors of delayed healthcare seeking among American Muslim women.Journal of Women’s Health,25(6), 586-593.
Padela, A. I., Peek, M., Johnson-Agbakwu, C. E., Hosseinian, Z., & Curlin, F. (2014). Associations between religion-related factors and cervical cancer screening among Muslims in greater Chicago.Journal of lower genital tract disease,18(4), 326.

American Muslim Cultural Challenges with U.S. Healthcare

Padela, A., Gunter, K., & Killawi, A. (2011). Meeting the healthcare needs of American Muslims: Challenges and strategies for healthcare settings.Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. June.
Padela, A. I., & Zaganjor, H. (2014). Relationships between Islamic religiosity and attitude toward deceased organ donation among American Muslims: a pilot study.Transplantation,97(12), 1292-1299.
Killawi, A., Heisler, M., Hamid, H., & Padela, A. I. (2015). Using CBPR for health research in American Muslim mosque communities: Lessons learned.Progress in community health partnerships: research, education, and action,9(1), 65.

National Survey of Muslim Physician Attitudes towards Religion and Medicine

Ahmed, M., Kubilis, P., & Padela, A. (2018). American Muslim physician attitudes toward organ donation.Journal of religion and health,57(5), 1717-1730.
Hamouda, M. A., Emanuel, L. L., & Padela, A. I. (2019). Empathy and Attending to Patient Religion/Spirituality: Findings from a National Survey of Muslim Physicians.Journalof health care chaplaincy, 1-21.
Padela, A. I., Adam, H., Ahmad, M., Hosseinian, Z., & Curlin, F. (2016). Religious identity and workplace discrimination: A national survey of American Muslim physicians.AJOB Empirical Bioethics,7(3), 149-159.
Arzuaga, B., Adam, H., Ahmad, M., & Padela, A. (2016). Attitudes towards the resuscitation of periviable infants: a national survey of American Muslim physicians.Acta Paediatrica,105(3), 260-267.
Mahdi, S., Ghannam, O., Watson, S., & Padela, A. I. (2016). Predictors of physician recommendation for ethically controversial medical procedures: findings from an exploratory national survey of American Muslim physicians.Journal of religion and health,55(2), 403-421.
Duivenbode, R., Hall, S., & Padela, A. I. (2019). Assessing Relationships Between Muslim Physicians’ Religiosity and End-of-Life Health-Care Attitudes and Treatment Recommendations: An Exploratory National Survey.American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine,36(9), 780-788.

Data Repository Information

Below you can access the survey questions, datasets, and data use agreements for the three projects outlined above. Before accessing the data, check out previously published findings above.

Cancer Screening Among Chicagoland Muslim Women

American Muslim Cultural Challenges with U.S. Healthcare

National Survey of Muslim Physician Attitudes towards Religion and Medicine