About Us   |   Contact Us   |  
Submission  

Religiousness, Spirituality and the use of Healthcare Services in the Management of Prostate Cancer in Côte d’Ivoire

DOI : https://doi.org/10.36349/easjhcs.2026.v08i05.001
PDF
HTML
XML

This study interrogates the interrelations between religious practices, spirituality and biomedical health-care seeking in the management of prostate cancer in Côte d’Ivoire (Abidjan), within a context characterised by therapeutic pluralism and the pronounced salience of religion. The central problematisation examines how socially and spiritually constructed symbolic meanings of illness shape patients’ care trajectories. The objective is to understand how faith, religious beliefs and spiritual practices influence therapeutic decision-making, medical adherence, and the temporalities of engagement with health services. Employing a qualitative methodology, the study draws on semi-structured interviews with men living with prostate cancer, health-care professionals and religious leaders, complemented by an interpretative discourse analysis. Findings indicate that the illness is frequently construed as a spiritual trial, a sanction, or a divine test, legitimising concurrent or alternating recourse to prayer, religious interventions and biomedical care. The discussion highlights logics of complementarity, alongside tensions between medical rationality and religious rationality. In conclusion, the study underscores the social utility of an integrative approach to care that is attentive to patients’ symbolic universes, thereby enhancing therapeutic adherence and the effectiveness of prostate cancer control policies in Côte d’Ivoire.

TOP EDITORS

OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS

Professor Thomas Count Dracula, MD, PhD

Distinguished Professor of Haematology Head — Experimental, Historical & Sensory Haematology Vlad the Impaler University, Wolf’s Lane, Wooden Stakes Grove 666, Transylvania.

BEST AUTHOR

Of The Month

TRACK YOUR ARTICLE

Enter the Manuscript Reference Number (MRN)
Get Details

Contact us


EAS Publisher (East African Scholars Publisher)
Nairobi, Kenya


Phone : +91-9365665504
Whatsapp : +91-8724002629
Email : easpublisher@gmail.com

About Us


EAS Publisher (East African Scholars Publisher) is an international scholar’s publisher for open access scientific journals in both print and online publishing from Kenya. Its aim is to provide scholars ... Read More Here

*This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

© 2020, All Rights Reserved | SASPR Edu International Pvt. Ltd.

Developed by JM