A new study has shown that faith leaders would be willing to partner on hypertension screenings and education, despite challenges of past health collaborations.
Researchers at the University of York, in a first-of-its-kind qualitative study in Lagos, Nigeria, interviewed eight faith leaders across six religious traditions to examine their perspectives on hypertension and the potential role of place-of-worship networks in tackling the condition.
Hypertension is a disorder of the heart and blood vessels, and is a major driver of cardiovascular disease and premature death. It impacts adults all around the world, but in Nigeria approximately one in three adults have the condition which is considered a growing health challenge in the country.
The study, published in Frontiers in Public Health , found that religious leaders demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of the social drivers behind high blood pressure, pointing directly to poverty, chronic stress, inadequate public infrastructure and systemic governance failures.
Dr Abayomi Sanusi, lead author of the study, from the University of York's Department of Health Sciences , said: “Our previous work has shown that promoting health through faith institutions holds unrealised potential to support and supplement healthcare systems. This latest study shows that rather than viewing cardiovascular issues purely through a spiritual lens, faith leaders offer a sharp critique of current health system deficiencies.
“In our interviews, they also expressed a strong willingness to open their doors to routine screening, health education and medical referral programmes.”
Faith leaders, however, stressed that interventions from researchers, government, and non-government organisations (NGOs) on previous public health collaborations have frequently been one-sided.
Leaders reported that past initiatives often acted in an "extractive" manner, taking access, trust and resources from local congregations without leaving behind sustainable health infrastructure or giving back to the communities served.
Professor Su Golder, from the University of York’s Department of Health Sciences , said: “It is evident that faith leaders are already acting as sophisticated diagnosticians of health system failure, yet they remain structurally excluded from official state and national hypertension strategies.
“Unfortunately, this is due to a failure to recognise religious authority as a legitimate public health asset.”
To effectively curb hypertension in Lagos, the study concludes that health authorities must move beyond using faith institutions as convenient “access points” to the community. Instead, policymakers must build genuine, reciprocal partnerships that treat religious figures as equal stakeholders.
The study sets out solutions for researchers, practitioners, funders and government officials. Health interventions must be co-designed with faith networks, and models of care tested so that key health resources are drawn from and remain within the community.
Crucially, faith institutions should be embedded into long-term national health policies, but researchers say this requires commitment from all partners from the outset and a genuine understanding of how effective faith leaders can be in supporting and promoting healthy lives.
Frontiers in Public Health