Abstract 576P
Background
As a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, cancer is increasingly posing a psychological, physical, and functional burden. Newer studies have begun to shift the focus from traditional to holistic treatment approaches in cancer patients which include psychological and spiritual care. Spirituality may play an important role in alleviating the burden on patients with cancer. Thus, our study aims to analyze the impact of spirituality on the quality of life, depression, anxiety, and cancer symptom severity in cancer patients within the Lebanese population.
Methods
This cross-sectional study included 200 participants over the age of 18, diagnosed with solid tumors and followed up by an oncologist at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. Data was primarily collected through the following questionnaires: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Spiritual Well-Being 12 Item Scale, MD Anderson Symptom Inventory for mean core symptom severity, and 36-Item Short Form Health Survey for physical and mental composite scores.
Results
Higher spirituality was found to be a protective factor against anxiety (aOR = 0.89, 95% CI [0.84, 0.94], p < 0.001) and depression (aOR = 0.90, 95% CI [0.85, 0.95], p < 0.001) in cancer patients. This protective effect was independent of symptom severity levels, physical QoL, and mental QoL. There were no significant differences in mean spirituality among the different types of cancers (p = 0.649) or between metastatic and local cancer (p = 0.204). Additionally, our study did not find that spirituality had a significant impact on cancer symptom severity or physical and mental QoL.
Conclusions
The findings of our study highlight the importance of spirituality in the mental health of cancer patients. While spirituality did not have a significant impact on cancer symptom severity or physical and mental QoL, it was correlated with lower anxiety and depression rates. This suggests that higher spirituality may independently improve mental health outcomes in cancer care, emphasizing the need to incorporate spiritual care and meaning-centered therapy to lessen the psychiatric burden.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.