Relationship between benefit finding from illness experiences and spirituality in cancer patients

Abstract

Relationships among spirituality, beneet nding from illness experiences, anxiety, depression, and level of physical symptoms were investigated in cancer patients, and predictors of spirituality were examined. Cancer patients N30 in an oncology ward of a general hospital completed the Japanese Beneet Finding Scale JBFS to assesses beneets, the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness erapy-Sp FACIT-Sp to assess spiritual well-being, the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale HADS to assess anxiety and depression, and the Anderson Symptom Inventory ASI to assess symptom levels. Results indicated that the FACIT-Sp score was positively correlated with each subdomain of the JBFS, and negatively correlated with ASI and HADS. Moreover, Role and Priority was the most important predictor of FACIT-Sp. ese results suggest that support by medical staa for beneet nding from illness experiences contribute to promoting spirituality. Moreover, Role and Priority might be particularly important for spirituality.