This study was to examine associations between mental health, spiritual health (positive mental health), fighting spirit and metastasis of patients with stomach, colorectal or breast cancer, and we evaluated the effects of spirituality intervention on ...
This study was to examine associations between mental health, spiritual health (positive mental health), fighting spirit and metastasis of patients with stomach, colorectal or breast cancer, and we evaluated the effects of spirituality intervention on spiritual wellbeing, social support and fighting spirit of stomach and colon cancer patients. The participants were 223 patients diagnosed as with stomach, colorectal or breast cancer, who were in chemotherapy or follow up care in the cross-sectional survey. The degree of depression, anxiety, hostility of the patients was each assessed by SCL-90-R, and fighting spirit was measured by the score of Mental Adjustment to Cancer(MAC) scale. Spiritual health was measured by the Korean version of WHOQOL Spirituality, Religiousness and Personal Beliefs (SRPB) Pilot Test Module. Social support was measured by Personal Resources Questionaire(PRQ).
The study showed that the cancer patients were more depressed and anxious than norm group. The more depressed and anxious among the cancer patients were scored lower in the fighting spirit score, which was known to be one of the most active coping style in adjusting to cancer. There was a statistically significant association among hope, believing, love, forgiveness and fighting spirit. In regression analysis, after controlling for psychological variables, hope and believing still showed the association with fighting spirit. In the follow-up survey, depression and spiritual health showed a significant association with new metastasis of the cancer patients. In the intervention study promoting spiritual health, the experimental group showed a significant increase in social support and fighting spirit scores compared to those of the control group after intervention. But there were no significant increase in scores of spiritual health compared to baseline scores in the experimental group, compared to the control group.
Spirituality promoting intervention showed a strong effect on perceived social support and fighting spirit of cancer patients instead. Psychosocial intervention including spiritual health calls for more attention from academic fields in that it has a potential power to improve the quality of life among the cancer patients