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The effect of spiritual well-being on symptom experience in patients with cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

To explore the effect of spiritual well-being on the symptom experience of patients with cancer.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional survey that enrolled 459 patients with cancer from three large hospitals in Jordan in 2018. Participants completed questionnaires related to demographic data, spiritual well-being, and symptom experience. Additional information was obtained from the medical record review. We then conducted multiple regression to evaluate if spiritual well-being predicts the patients’ reported symptom distress.

Results

Patients reported thirty-six symptoms. Of which 15 have a prevalence of more than 30%. Fatigue was the most prevalent symptom (n = 282, 61.4%), followed by pain (n = 243, 52.9%) and anxiety (n = 230, 50.1%). Spiritual well-being predicted 7.1% of the total variance in patients’ symptom distress (F, 19.650; p < 0.0001). Additional predictors were gender, education level, having a problem covering the treatment cost, family cancer history, and whether taking a complementary treatment or not.

Conclusions

Patients with cancer experience multiple symptoms related to the disease and its treatment. Improving patients’ spiritual well-being through an increased sense of meaning and peace can improve cancer symptom experience by decreasing symptom distress. In general, hospitals in Jordan focus on direct symptom management and do not look after patients’ spiritual needs. Raising awareness about the importance of patients’ spiritual well-being and providing appropriate spiritual assessment and interventions to patients with spiritual distress can improve patients’ symptom experience.

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Data availability

The dataset generated during the current study is not publicly available.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Huda Huijer and the FACIT organization for their permission to use the Arabic versions of the scales. In addition, the authors would like to thank The Deanship of the Scientific Research - The University of Jordan for funding this study. Finally, the authors would like to thank all cancer patients who, despite their frailty, distress, and burden, continue to participate in research studies to enlighten the future of others. Without you, there will be no progress in this discipline.

Funding

This study is funded by the Deanship of the Scientific Research-The University of Jordan.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing, Clinical Nursing Department, The University of Jordan, Amman, 11942, Jordan

    Randa M. Albusoul, Amer A. Hasanien, Maysoon S. Abdalrahim, Ruqayya S. Zeilani & Dua’ Y. Al-Maharma

Authors
  1. Randa M. Albusoul
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  2. Amer A. Hasanien
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  3. Maysoon S. Abdalrahim
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  4. Ruqayya S. Zeilani
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  5. Dua’ Y. Al-Maharma
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Contributions

Randa Albusoul and Maysoon Abdalrahim contributed to the study conception and design. Dua’ Al-Maharma managed the data collection. Amer Hasanien completed the data analysis and wrote the results. Ruqayya S. Zeilani wrote the methodology section. Maysoon Abdalrahim wrote the introduction and did the literature review. Randa Albusoul wrote the discussion section and prepared the first draft of the manuscript. All authors actively participated in interpreting the results and reviewed, edited, and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Randa M. Albusoul.

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Consent for publication

These data have not been presented or published elsewhere. All authors read and approved the final version.

Ethical consideration

The project was approved by the Scientific Research Committee at the School of Nursing at the University of Jordan (187412018/19) and the Institutional Review Board of participating hospitals. Participation was voluntary and patients were assured that their responses will be confidential and they had the right to withdraw from the study at any time without any influence on their treatment plan. The anonymity of the participants was ensured throughout the study.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all participants in the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Albusoul, R.M., Hasanien, A.A., Abdalrahim, M.S. et al. The effect of spiritual well-being on symptom experience in patients with cancer. Support Care Cancer 30, 6767–6774 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-07104-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-07104-4

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