The objective of this study was to determine whether, after accounting for illness and demographic variables, spiritual involvement and beliefs and positive and negative spiritual coping could account for any of the variation in anxiety and depression among women within 1 year's diagnosis of gynecological cancer (GC). One hundred patients from outpatient GC clinics at two Melbourne-based hospitals completed a brief structured interview and self-report measures of anxiety, depression, spirituality, and spiritual coping. Using two sequential regression analyses, we found that younger women with more advanced disease, who used more negative spiritual coping, had a greater tendency towards depression and that the use of negative spiritual coping was associated with greater anxiety scores. Although not statistically significant, patients with lower levels of generalized spirituality also tended to be more depressed. The site of disease and phase of treatment were not predictive of either anxiety or depression. We conclude that spirituality and spiritual coping are important to women with GC and that health professionals in the area should consider these issues.

The findings suggest that women are able to assimilate the bodily changes of pregnancy without a negative shift in BIS. However, women who exercise during pregnancy may respond more favourably to changes in their bodies at early pregnancy compared to women who remain sedentary.

The results supported the hypothesis, suggesting that SOC may be protective against demoralisation in the context of serious illness. Larger, multivariate studies that examine additional variables (such as coping) would be required to further clarify the relationship between SOC and demoralisation. In the meantime, clinicians may want to consider efforts to enhance SOC in patients.

No abstract