Introduction:Diagnosis of cancer can cause huge spiritual crisis in a person and affect different aspects of life. At this stage, patients have certain spiritual needs.Aim:This study was conducted to explain spiritual needs of cancer patients in Iran.Materials and Methods:In this qualitative study, 18 cancer patients, referred to the Cancer Institute of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran were selected using purposive sampling method, and their spiritual needs emerged out of conventional content analysis of interviews conducted with them.Results:From 1850 initial codes, 4 themes (connection, peace, meaning and purpose, and transcendence) were identified that contained categories of social support, normal behavior, inner peace, seeking forgiveness, hope, acceptance of reality, seeking meaning, ending well, change of life meaning, strengthening spiritual belief, communication with God, and prayer.Conclusions:Spiritual needs of cancer patients should be recognized, realized, and considered in care of patients by the medical team. An all-out support of health system policy makers to meet patients’ spiritual needs is particularly important.

Background: The diagnosis of cancer can cause great spiritual crises in persons and affect various aspects of their lives. Objectives: This study was conducted to design a psychometric spiritual needs assessment scale of patients with cancer in Iran. Methods: This methodological research was conducted in 2 parts: qualitative and quantitative. Interviews were conducted with 18 patients with cancer who were referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran with the maximum diversity of the patients occurring in the qualitative stage for explaining the spiritual needs of patients. The purposive sampling method was applied to this study. The interviews were analysed with the content analysis method, and eventually classes related to patients' spiritual needs were conducted. Also, the terms of the scale were designed in this way. In the quantitative stage, content validity, formal validity, structure validity (exploratory factor analysis), and convergent validity were evaluated with internal consistency and retests of the scale. Results: The 4 themes, Connection, Search for Peace, Find Meaning and Purpose, and Achieve Transcendence were extracted from the codes obtained. The intended scale was, then, designed. The content validity index and validity ratio of tools of content validity were determined. Content validity was applied during the assessment of face validity assessment of written comments of experts. In addition, 10 patients were examined on the scale. An exploratory factor analysis indicated the 5 factors of the designed scale. Finally, a scale was obtained with 38 terms in 5 subscales and its scoring was determined in a 6-episode Likert. Cronbach's alpha for the total scale was estimated 0.81; for the religious dimension, this was 0.88, for meaning and purpose 0.77, for peace 0.70, for connection 0.74, and for support and nationalism 0.67, respectively. The result of the retest was also estimated ICC = 0.89. Conclusions: The spiritual needs scale in patients with cancer can measure different aspects of spiritual needs and is reliable and valid. It is suggested that the spiritual needs assessment scale of patients with cancer be used in different populations of patients with cancer separated on the basis of sex, age, type of cancer, and stage of the cancer and the spiritual needs of these patients be determined. Also, the designed scale is validated in other places and with different cultural conditions.

Background/Aims A recent study revealed increasing incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in Iran. The Iranian Registry of Crohn’s and Colitis (IRCC) was designed recently to answer the needs. We reported the design, methods of data collection, and aims of IRCC in this paper. Methods IRCC is a multicenter prospective registry, which is established with collaboration of more than 100 gastroenterologists from different provinces of Iran. Minimum data set for IRCC was defined according to an international consensus on standard set of outcomes for IBD. A pilot feasibility study was performed on 553 IBD patients with a web-based questionnaire. The reliability of questionnaire evaluated by Cronbach’s α. Results All sections of questionnaire had Cronbach’s α of more than 0.6. In pilot study, 312 of participants (56.4%) were male and mean age was 38 years (standard deviation=12.8) and 378 patients (68.35%) had ulcerative colitis, 303 subjects (54,7%) had college education and 358 patients (64.74%) were of Fars ethnicity. We found that 68 (12.3%), 44 (7.9%), and 13 (2.3%) of participants were smokers, hookah and opium users, respectively. History of appendectomy was reported in 58 of patients (10.48%). The most common medication was 5-aminosalicylate (94.39%). Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, IRCC is the first national IBD registry in the Middle East and could become a reliable infrastructure for national and international research on IBD. IRCC will improve the quality of care of IBD patients and provide national information for policy makers to better plan for controlling IBD in Iran.

Background: Cancers impose an increasing burden on health of the populations and individuals, but little is known about cancer patient satisfaction with care. The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Persian version of European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) In-Patsat32, as a recently developed questionnaire to assess cancer patient satisfaction with care and information provided during hospital admission. Materials and Methods: Complying with EORTC protocols, the Persian version of Inpatsat32 was translated and piloted in a small group of patients, then applied to 380 cancer patients admitted to different oncology wards in Tehran. Validity (convergent, discriminant, and divergent) and reliability of the tool was assessed through using multitrait analysis, factor analysis, intraclass correlations, Chronbach's alpha and test-retest (on a sample of 70 patients). Results: Good acceptance and high sensitivity of the questionnaire with low floor and ceiling effects were recognized, indicating power of the instrument to detect differences between groups with heterogeneous levels of satisfaction. Multitrait scaling analyses supported the convergent validity of the majority of scales (correlation coefficient >0.4) and favorable discriminant validity (item own scale correlation >0.8). There was no correlation between In-patsat32 scales and the EORTC-C30, which measures different concepts, confirming divergent validity of the tool. Internal consistency for all domains was high (α>0.70) except for the hospital access score and the test-retest reliability was excellent (r=0.86-0.96). There was a weak responsiveness to change except for nurses technical skills. Principle component analysis confirmed five domains with much improved internal consistency (α>0.9). Conclusions: The Persian version of the EORTC-in-patsat32 module is a reliable and valid instrument to measure cancer patient satisfaction with care received during their hospitalization period and can be utilized in clinical cancer research.