Religious/spiritual coping and spiritual distress in people with cancer

To investigate the relation between the presence of spiritual distress and use of RSC and sociodemographic, clinical and religious/spiritual variables in people with cancer.

Method:

Cross-sectional study conducted in an association for support to people with cancer. The data obtained with the tools were analyzed using the Spearman‘s correlation coefficient and the Mann-Whitney Test.

Results:

129 volunteers participated in the study, of which 57% showed moderate spiritual distress, 96% used medium and high positive religious/spiritual coping. Spiritual distress showed positive correlation with negative religious/spiritual coping (P<0.001) and inverse correlation with age (p 0.002). The use of positive religious coping was statistically significant in people who have religious practices (p 0.001).

Conclusão:

Spiritual distress is a phenomenon that is present in the lives of people with cancer and has significant relation with the use, in a negative manner, of religion/spirituality as a way of coping with the disease.

Descriptors:
Spirituality; Religion; Religion and Science; Neoplasms; Nursing

Variables	Range of values		Median	Mean	Standard deviation
Variables	Possible	Found	Median	Mean	Standard deviation
Religious/spiritual coping
Positive religious/spiritual coping	1.00-5.00	2.03-4.62	3.50	3.47	0.46
Negative religious/spiritual coping	1.00-5.00	1.00-2.93	1.67	1.71	0.45
Total religious/spiritual coping	1.00-5.00	1.60-3.29	2.58	2.59	0.32
Spiritual distress	30-180	34-161	89.00	86.01	26.46

Variables	n (%)
Variables	Irrelevant	Low	Medium	High	Very high
Positive religious/spiritual coping	0 (0)	4 (3)	62 (48)	62(48)	1(1)
Negative religious/spiritual coping	45 (35)	76 (59)	8 (6)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Total religious/spiritual coping	0 (0)	49 (38)	80 (62)	0 (0)	0 (0)

Variables	Correlation coefficient	CI	P
Positive religious/spiritual coping × spiritual distress	-0.135	[-0.295; 0.034]	0.128
Negative religious/spiritual coping × spiritual distress	0.373	[0.208; 0.515]	*< 0.001^ * Significant at the 5% level.**
Spiritual distress × age	-0.273	[-0.439; 0.095]	0.002^* * Significant at the 5% level.
Spiritual distress × importance of religion	-0.056	[-0.241; 0.132]	0.528
Spiritual distress × diagnosis time	0.007	[-0.164; 0.171]	0.940

Variables		Catholic		Has religious practice
Variables		Yes	No	Yes	No
Positive religious/spiritual coping	Median	3.515	3.500	3.559	2.838
	Mean	3.472	3.457	3.503	2.745
	SD	0.448	0.521	0.439	0.438
	p	0.850		0.001^* * Significant at the 5% level.
Negative religious/spiritual coping	Median	1.600	1.933	1.667	2.100
	Mean	1.636	1.915	1.691	2.033
	SD	0.421	0.485	0.446	0.528
	p	0.004^* * Significant at the 5% level.		0.103
Spiritual distress	Median	85.50	96.00	89.00	65.50
	Mean	84.91	89.21	86.19	82.33
	SD	27.507	23.224	25.676	42.608
	p	0.362		0.513

Variables	Cronbach's alpha
Positive religious/spiritual coping	0.814
Negative religious/spiritual coping	0.675
Total religious/spiritual coping	0.783
Spiritual distress	0.907

Associação Brasileira de Enfermagem SGA Norte Quadra 603 Conj. "B" - Av. L2 Norte 70830-102 Brasília, DF, Brasil, Tel.: (55 61) 3226-0653, Fax: (55 61) 3225-4473 - Brasília - DF - Brazil
E-mail: reben@abennacional.org.br

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[1] Corresponding Author: Gabriela Cruz Noronha Silva. E-mail: gabinoronha6@gmail.com