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Spiritual well-being among outpatients with cancer receiving concurrent oncologic and palliative care

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Abstract

Purpose

Spiritual well-being is threatened by cancer, but its correlation with other illness symptoms and the efficacy of palliative care (PC) to ameliorate spiritual suffering are not well understood.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective study using a convenience sample of oncology patients at a comprehensive cancer center who received concurrent oncologic and palliative care between 2008 and 2011 and completed ESAS, QUAL-E, and Steinhauser Spiritual well-being survey questions was conducted. Descriptive, correlation, and t test statistics.

Results

Eight hundred eighty-three patients surveyed had an average age of 65.6 years, with 54.1 % female, 69.3 % white, and 49.3 % married. Half (452, 51.2 %) had metastatic disease. Religious affiliation was reported as Christian by 20.3 %, Catholic by 18.7 %, and “none” by 39.0 %. Baseline spiritual well-being was not significantly correlated with age, gender, race, cancer stage, marital status, insurance provider, or having a religious affiliation. Greater spiritual well-being was correlated with greater quality of life (<p = 0.001) and well-being (<p = 0.001), and with less depression (<p = 0.001), anxiety (<p = 0.001), fatigue (p = 0.005), and pain (p = 0.01). In multiple regression analysis, the associations persisted between spiritual well-being and anxiety, depression, fatigue, and quality of life (R 2 = 0.677). Spiritual well-being improved comparing mean scores immediately prior to initial PC consultation with those at first follow-up (2.89 vs. 3.23 on a 1–5 scale, p = 0.005).

Conclusions

Among patients with cancer receiving concurrent oncologic and palliative care, spiritual well-being was not associated with patient age, gender, or race, or disease stage. It was correlated with physical and emotional symptoms. Spiritual well-being scores improved from just prior to the initial PC consultation to just prior to the first PC follow-up visit.

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Conflict of interest

None

No competing financial interests exist for either author.

Dr. Rabow has full control of the primary data and will allow the journal to review the data if requested.

Funding

The authors are funded by the University of California at San Francisco, which had no role in the design, conduct, analysis, or publishing of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Michael W. Rabow & Sarah J. Knish

  2. UCSF/Mount Zion, 1545 Divisadero St, Suite #313, San Francisco, CA, 94143-0320, USA

    Michael W. Rabow

Authors
  1. Michael W. Rabow
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  2. Sarah J. Knish
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Correspondence to Michael W. Rabow.

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Rabow, M.W., Knish, S.J. Spiritual well-being among outpatients with cancer receiving concurrent oncologic and palliative care. Support Care Cancer 23, 919–923 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-014-2428-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-014-2428-4

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