Abstract 5314
Background
Spiritual distress is prevalent in advanced disease, but often neglected, resulting in unnecessary suffering. Religion and/or spirituality have increasingly been recognized as key elements in patients’ experience of advanced illness. This study aims to explore spiritual care needs, experiences, preferences and examine the association between religious coping and quality of life among patients with advanced cancer.
Methods
Structured interviews were conducted with 135 patients in advanced cancer patients and their primary informal caregivers. Patients completed measures of QOL (McGill QOL questionnaire), religious coping (Brief Measure of Religious Coping [RCOPE] and Multidimensional Measure of Religion/ Spirituality), self-efficacy (General Self-Efficacy Scale), and sociodemographic variables. Both positive and negative religious coping and multiple dimensions of QOL (physical, physical symptom, psychological, existential, and support) were studied.
Results
The median age of the population was 60.2 years and majority of the subjects were Hindus. The study revealed greater use of positive religious coping was associated with better overall QOL as well as higher scores on the existential and support QOL dimensions and was also related to more physical symptoms. However, greater use of negative religious coping was related to poorer overall QOL. Most patients believed it was important for health care professionals to consider patient spiritual concerns within the medical setting. Spiritual care was reportedly lacking, primarily due to staff members’ de-prioritisation and lack of time.
Conclusions
This study demonstrates that spiritual concerns are common among advanced cancer patients, and that they are associated with poorer psychological well-being. Spiritual care is an essential but neglected component of care, according to patients and their caregivers across a range of countries. The findings of the present study support the relationship between spirituality and health outcomes.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
Vibhay Pareek.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
Resources from the same session
5638 - Incidence of Vascular Thromboembolism Events in Cancer Patients Receiving Immunotherapy: A Single Institution Experience.
Presenter: Laura Gutiérrez Sainz
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
5182 - High Incidence of Venous Thromboembolic Events (VTE) in Patients with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma.
Presenter: Alaa Abufara
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
1504 - Weight Loss over Time in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Results from a Landmark Analysis of 800+ Prospectively-Treated Patients
Presenter: Jennifer Le-rademacher
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
3972 - The prognostic significance of preoperative nutritional status in resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).
Presenter: Salvatore Paiella
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
2313 - Impact of Timing and Technique of Gastrostomy Placement on the Outcome of Patients (pts) with Head and Neck Cancer (HNC)
Presenter: M Julia Lostes Bardaji
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
5219 - Clinical & nutritional determinants of quality of life in patients with incurable cancer
Presenter: Louise Daly
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
4075 - Loss of skeletal muscle mass during palliative chemotherapy is a poor prognostic factor in patients with advanced gastric cancer
Presenter: In Gyu Hwang
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
4159 - Impact of nutritional derangement on treatment outcome in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (A-NSCLC) patients (pts).
Presenter: Ilaria Trestini
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
1210 - Sarcopenia and pretreatment anemia as prognostic factors for patients with localized muscle invasive bladder cancer treated by neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radical cystectomy
Presenter: Emilien Billon
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
2490 - Gender effect on the pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) of anamorelin (ANAM) in healthy volunteers and cancer patients with cachexia
Presenter: Stein Kaasa
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract