IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i5p2988-d763832.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Relationship between Religious Beliefs and Attitudes towards Public Health Infection Prevention Measures among an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Population during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Bruria Adini

    (Department of Emergency and Disaster Management, School of Public Health, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6139001, Israel)

  • Yoel Cohen

    (Moskowitz School of Communication, Ariel University, Ariel 4077625, Israel)

  • Ahuva Spitz

    (School of Nursing, Jerusalem College of Technology, Jerusalem 91160, Israel)

Abstract

The ultra-Orthodox population in Israel was heavily impacted by COVID-19; it is important to understand the factors that contributed to this. There may be a friction between religious versus governmental guidelines that may reduce adherence to COVID mitigation guidelines, such as social distancing and masking. The purpose of this study is to explore this tension and the extent to which it existed in the surveyed sample. The study identified attitudes of ultra-Orthodox individuals concerning religious and public health measures to mitigate COVID-19 infection. A closed-ended questionnaire was completed by 405 ultra-Orthodox Jews. Most respondents believe that religious learning protects from harm (91%); 74% believe that periodically there are inconsistencies between religious guidelines and medical guidelines; 59% believe that preventive medicine may clash with “Divine protection”. Some public health measures applied to contain the pandemic threaten religious lifestyle; this is a source of dissonance among ultra-religious populations, which may substantially decrease willingness to comply with public health measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruria Adini & Yoel Cohen & Ahuva Spitz, 2022. "The Relationship between Religious Beliefs and Attitudes towards Public Health Infection Prevention Measures among an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Population during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-10, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:5:p:2988-:d:763832
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/5/2988/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/5/2988/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shaul Kimhi & Yohanan Eshel & Hadas Marciano & Bruria Adini, 2020. "Distress and Resilience in the Days of COVID-19: Comparing Two Ethnicities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-11, June.
    2. Faiga Weiden & Michal Levinsky & Miriam Schiff & Nati Becker & Ruth Pat-Horenczyk & Rami Benbenishty, 2021. "COVID-Related Concerns, the Need for Help, and Perceived Microaggression among Young Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Respondents in Israel," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-15, June.
    3. Tehila Kalagy & Sarah Abu-Kaf & Orna Braun-Lewensohn, 2021. "Effective Ways to Encourage Health-Care Practices among Cultural Minorities in Israel during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-13, September.
    4. Tomer Mevorach & Jonathan Cohen & Alan Apter, 2021. "Keep Calm and Stay Safe: The Relationship between Anxiety and Other Psychological Factors, Media Exposure and Compliance with COVID-19 Regulations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-13, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Milka Donchin & Lia Gurewitz & Sima Lissa Wetzler, 2023. "Implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) among the Member Cities of the “Healthy Cities Network” in Israel," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arielle Kaim & Maya Siman-Tov & Eli Jaffe & Bruria Adini, 2021. "From Isolation to Containment: Perceived Fear of Infectivity and Protective Behavioral Changes during the COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-12, June.
    2. Lubna Tannous-Haddad & Dorit Hadar-Shoval & Michal Alon-Tirosh & Kfir Asraf & Orna Tzischinsky, 2022. "Difference between Minorities and Majorities in the Association between COVID-19-Related Stress and Psychological Distress: A Socio-Ecological Perspective and the Moderating Role of Parenthood," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-11, July.
    3. Odeya Cohen & Alaa Mahagna & Asmaa Shamia & Ortal Slobodin, 2020. "Health-Care Services as a Platform for Building Community Resilience among Minority Communities: An Israeli Pilot Study during the COVID-19 Outbreak," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-14, October.
    4. Fareeda Abo-Rass & Sarah Abu-Kaf & Ora Nakash & Orna Braun-Lewensohn, 2024. "Mental health literacy as a barrier and facilitator for service use: Qualitative inquiry among Palestinian Bedouins in Israel," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 70(4), pages 689-699, June.
    5. Finiki Nearchou & Ellen Douglas, 2021. "Traumatic Distress of COVID-19 and Depression in the General Population: Exploring the Role of Resilience, Anxiety, and Hope," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-14, August.
    6. Carlos Ruiz-Frutos & Mónica Ortega-Moreno & Adriano Dias & João Marcos Bernardes & Juan Jesús García-Iglesias & Juan Gómez-Salgado, 2020. "Information on COVID-19 and Psychological Distress in a Sample of Non-Health Workers during the Pandemic Period," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-18, September.
    7. Orit Taubman–Ben-Ari & Miriam Chasson & Hilit Erel-Brodsky & Salam Abu-Sharkia & Vera Skvirsky & Eran Horowitz, 2022. "Contributors to COVID-19-Related Childbirth Anxiety among Pregnant Women in Two Pandemic Waves," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, December.
    8. Shaul Kimhi & Yohanan Eshel & Hadas Marciano & Bruria Adini, 2021. "Fluctuations in National Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-11, April.
    9. Ola Ali-Saleh & Ofra Halperin, 2022. "Cross-Sectional Study of Factors Influencing Perceived Threat and Stress among the Arab Minority in Israel during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-11, August.
    10. Chen Cohen & Lilach Rinot Levavi, 2023. "A Game-Theory-Based Approach to Promoting Health Policy among Minorities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-18, February.
    11. Shiri Shinan-Altman & Inbar Levkovich, 2022. "Are Personal Resources and Perceived Stress Associated with Psychological Outcomes among Israeli Teachers during the Third COVID-19 Lockdown?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-10, May.
    12. Miri Tal-Saban & Shahar Zaguri-Vittenberg, 2022. "Adolescents and Resilience: Factors Contributing to Health-Related Quality of Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-10, March.
    13. Dicky C. Pelupessy & Yasuhito Jibiki & Daisuke Sasaki, 2022. "Exploring People’s Perception of COVID-19 Risk: A Case Study of Greater Jakarta, Indonesia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:5:p:2988-:d:763832. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.