the relationship among mask-wearing, fatalism, and religiosity in a muslim population: implications for health education

Background: understanding the relationship between religiosity and health behaviors helps us tailor messages based on cultural beliefs. we conducted an online survey to find any relationship between fatalistic beliefs, religiosity, and mask-wearing as a health behavior in an islamic context.methods: an online questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted via convenience sampling. the participants consisted of 503 subjects from the adult population of kerman province, located in southeast iran. the measurement tool consisted of four sections: (a) demographic characteristics, (b) three items related to mask-wearing, (c) the god locus of health control (glhc) scale, consisting of six items measuring fatalistic beliefs, and (d) the duke university religion index (durel), consisting of five items measuring religiosity. “mask adherence” applied to those who wore masks during all public activities (i.e., continually).results: the mean age of the participants was 36.5 ± 10.9 years, and females comprised 60% (n = 302) of the sample. more than one-fifth (n = 109) reported a history of covid-19 infection. approximately one-third of respondents (n = 163) reported full mask adherence. the logistic regression model showed that there was no significant relationship between mask adherence and religiosity (odds ratio [or] = 1.03; 95% ci = 0.99–1.08) or fatalistic beliefs (or = 1.01; 95% ci = 0.98–1.04).conclusion: fatalism and religiosity had no association with mask-wearing during the covid-19 pandemic in the iranian muslim population. therefore, religious beliefs may have no place in the cultural tailoring of health messages for promoting mask adherence.