Religious and traditional beliefs and practices as predictors of mental and physical health outcomes and the role of religious affiliation in health outcomes and risk taking

BACKGROUND: While many studies from sub-Saharan countries, including Zimbabwe, allude to the important role of religion and tradition for young people living with HIV (YPLHIV), most of these studies tend to be descriptive and lack advanced statistical analysis. This study aims to close this gap. METHODS: Data for this study was collected between July and October 2021 from 804 YPLHIV (aged 14–24) in Zimbabwe. The questionnaire included questions regarding participants’ conceptions of HIV, their health seeking and risk-taking behaviour, current HIV viral load results, the prevalence of opportunistic infections, their mental health status, and demographic characteristics. The analysis was done using multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression. RESULTS: We found that Traditional religious affiliation was linked to overall lower viral load (OR: 0.34; CI: 0.12–0.96; P: 0.042), Apostolic to more (OR: 1.52; CI: 1-2.3; P: 0.049) and Pentecostal to less (OR: 0.53; CI: 0.32–0.95; P: 0.033) treatment failure. Additionally, conceptions about HIV without spiritual or religious connotation, such as ‘seeing HIV as result of a weak body’ was associated with lower risk of treatment failure (OR: 0.6; CI: 0.4-1.0; P: 0.063), higher chances for undetectable viral load (OR: 1.4; CI: 1–2; P: 0.061), and overall lower viral load (OR: 0.7; CI: 0.5-1; P: 0.067). Moralizing concepts of HIV, like ‘seeing HIV as a result of sin in the family’, was linked to higher risk of opportunistic infections (OR:1.8; CI:1.1-3; P: 0.018), and higher risk of treatment failure (OR: 1.7; CI: 0.7–1.1; P: 0.066). Religious objections toward certain forms of therapy, like toward cervical cancer screening, was linked to higher risk of mental problems (OR: 2.2; CI: 1.35–3.68; P: 0.002) and higher risk of opportunistic infections (OR:1.6; CI:1.1–2.1; P: 0.008). Religious affiliations significantly influenced conceptions of HIV, health seeking behaviour, and risk taking. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this study is the first to provide evidence about the statistically significant associations between religious and traditional beliefs and practices and current health outcomes and health risk factors of YPLHIV in Zimbabwe. It is also the first to identify empirically the role of religious affiliations as predictors of current viral load results. This new knowledge can inform contextualized approaches to support YPLHIV in Zimbabwe.