Race, religion, and inclusive healthcare: exploring intersections between racial and spiritual identities among older adults

Attitudes toward healthcare are often shaped by religious and spiritual beliefs, including among older adults from racial and ethnic minority communities. Many rely on faith to navigate aging, influencing how they interpret health, illness, and interactions with medicine. Guided by an intersectional framework, this qualitative study explores how race, religion, spirituality, age, and healthcare experiences intersect among older adults from racialized communities. Using a phenomenological approach, seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants aged 50+ who identified across diverse religious and non-religious (e.g. Jewish, Christian, atheist) and racial backgrounds (e.g. Indigenous, East Asian, Black). Interviews explored personal beliefs, spiritual journeys, experiences of aging, and views on science and healthcare. Findings revealed three key themes: (1) the complex relationship between ethnic identity and spiritual expression, with some describing assimilation and others reclaiming cultural traditions; (2) spiritual communities as both sources of support and sites where systemic failures in culturally responsive healthcare were evident; and (3) aging as a catalyst for spiritual reflection, where awareness of mortality deepened meaning-making and sometimes highlighted tensions between scientific and spiritual worldviews. This research offers a preliminary understanding of how overlapping (non)religious and racial identities shape older adults’ experiences of aging, resilience, healthcare, and systemic barriers.