Photo by Petr Kratochvil
Three meta-analyses shed new light on the role religion and spirituality play in cancer patients’ mental, social, and physical well-being.
The analyses, published in Cancer, indicate that religion and spirituality have significant associations with patients’ health.
But investigators observed wide variability among studies with regard to how different dimensions of religion and spirituality relate to different aspects of health.
In the first analysis, the investigators focused on physical health. Patients reporting greater overall religiousness and spirituality reported better physical health, greater ability to perform their usual daily tasks, and fewer physical symptoms of cancer and treatment.
“These relationships were particularly strong in patients who experienced greater emotional aspects of religion and spirituality, including a sense of meaning and purpose in life as well as a connection to a source larger than oneself,” said study author Heather Jim, PhD, of the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.
Dr Jim noted that patients who reported greater cognitive aspects of religion and spirituality, such as the ability to integrate the cancer into their religious or spiritual beliefs, also reported better physical health. However, physical health was not related to behavioral aspects of religion and spiritualty, such as church attendance, prayer, or meditation.
In the second analysis, the investigators examined patients’ mental health. The team discovered that emotional aspects of religion and spirituality were more strongly associated with positive mental health than behavioral or cognitive aspects of religion and spirituality.
“Spiritual well-being was, unsurprisingly, associated with less anxiety, depression, or distress,” said study author John Salsman, PhD, of Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
“Also, greater levels of spiritual distress and a sense of disconnectedness with God or a religious community was associated with greater psychological distress or poorer emotional well-being.”
The third analysis pertained to social health, or patients’ capacity to retain social roles and relationships in the face of illness. Religion and spirituality, as well as each of its dimensions, had modest but reliable links with social health.
“When we took a closer look, we found that patients with stronger spiritual well-being, more benign images of God (such as perceptions of a benevolent God rather than an angry or distant God), or stronger beliefs (such as convictions that a personal God can be called upon for assistance) reported better social health,” said study author Allen Sherman, PhD, of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. “In contrast, those who struggled with their faith fared more poorly.”
The investigators believe future research should focus on how relationships between religious or spiritual involvement and health change over time and whether support services designed to enhance particular aspects of religion and spirituality in interested patients might help improve their well-being.
“In addition, some patients struggle with the religious or spiritual significance of their cancer, which is normal,” Dr Jim said. “How they resolve their struggle may impact their health, but more research is needed to better understand and support these patients.”
