Quality of life and religious-spiritual coping in palliative cancer care patients.
Ticiane Dionizio de Sousa Matos, Silmara Meneguin, Maria de Lourdes da Silva Ferreira and 1 others
PMID 28699996WHAT IT FOUND
Palliative cancer patients reported similar overall quality of life to healthy controls, but significantly worse psychological and physical wellbeing.
They used more negative religious coping, such as feeling punished by God, while positive coping remained high. Family support and pain were the top factors influencing their daily quality of life.
Key findings
01Palliative care patients had significantly lower scores in physical and psychological wellbeing compared to healthy controls, despite similar total quality of life scores.
02Patients used significantly more negative religious-spiritual coping strategies than controls, while positive coping levels were similar between groups.
03Male sex, Catholic religion, and higher total religious-spiritual coping scores were significantly associated with better perceived quality of life in the multivariate analysis.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The cross-sectional design means it cannot determine if religious coping influences quality of life or vice versa, nor can it track changes over time. The control group consisted of parents of nursing students, which may not represent the general healthy population and introduces potential selection bias. The study was conducted in a specific cultural context (Brazil) with a predominantly Catholic population, limiting generalizability to other religious or cultural groups. Self-reported emotional conditions were used for inclusion, which may introduce selection bias regarding who was deemed capable of participating.
Declared interests
No conflicts of interest or funding sources were explicitly declared in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the similar total quality of life scores as evidence that palliative patients are coping well. The total score masks significant deficits in the psychological and physical wellbeing domains, which are the areas most likely to require nursing intervention.