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Re-examining the Contributions of Faith, Meaning, and Peace to Quality of Life: a Report from the American Cancer Society’s Studies of Cancer Survivors-II (SCS-II)

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

Prior research on spirituality in cancer survivors has often failed to distinguish the specific contributions of faith, meaning, and peace, dimensions of spiritual well-being, to quality of life (QoL), and has misinterpreted mediation analyses with these indices.

Purpose

We hypothesized a model in which faith would have a significant indirect effect on survivors’ functional QoL, mediated through meaning and/or peace.

Methods

Data were from the American Cancer Society’s Study of Cancer Survivors-II (N = 8405). Mediation analyses were conducted with the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy–Spiritual Well-being Scale (FACIT-Sp) predicting the mental component summary (i.e., mental functioning) as well as the physical component summary (i.e., physical functioning) of the SF-36.

Results

The indirect effect of faith through meaning on mental functioning, 0.4303 (95 % CI, 0.3988, 0.4649), and the indirect effect of faith through meaning and peace on physical functioning, 0.1769 (95 % CI, 0.1505, 0.2045), were significant.

Discussion

The study findings suggest that faith makes a significant contribution to cancer survivors’ functional QoL. Should future longitudinal research replicate these findings, investigators may need to reconsider the role of faith in oncology QoL studies.

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Acknowledgments

The American Cancer Society (ACS) Study of Cancer Survivors-II (SCS-II) was funded as an intramural research project conducted by the ACS Behavioral Research Center (BRC). We wish to acknowledge the cooperation and efforts of the cancer registries from the states of Arizona, California (regions 2–6), Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wyoming. We also thank the staff of the hundreds of hospitals contributing cases to the participating cancer registries; their data made this research possible. Lastly, we salute the thousands of cancer survivors, their physicians, and their loved ones who contributed to the collection of these data. The authors assume full responsibility for analyses and interpretation of these data.

Authors’ Statement of Conflict of Interest and Adherence to Ethical Standards

Authors Canada, Murphy, Fitchett, and Stein declare that they have no conflict of interest. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University, La Mirada, CA, USA

    Andrea L. Canada Ph.D.

  2. Religion, Health, and Human Values, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA

    Patricia E. Murphy Ph.D. & George Fitchett Ph.D.

  3. Behavioral Research Center, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Kevin Stein Ph.D.

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  1. Andrea L. Canada Ph.D.
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  3. George Fitchett Ph.D.
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  4. Kevin Stein Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Andrea L. Canada Ph.D..

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Canada, A.L., Murphy, P.E., Fitchett, G. et al. Re-examining the Contributions of Faith, Meaning, and Peace to Quality of Life: a Report from the American Cancer Society’s Studies of Cancer Survivors-II (SCS-II). ann. behav. med. 50, 79–86 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-015-9735-y

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