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BACKGROUND: Spirituality and religion are often central issues for patients dealing with chronic illness. The purpose of this study is to characterize spirituality/ religion in a large and diverse sample of patients with HIV/AIDS by using several measures of spirituality/religion, to examine associations between spirituality/religion and a number of demographic, clinical, and psychosocial variables, and to assess changes in levels of spirituality over 12 to 18 months.

The present study investigated the relationships between positive religious coping (e.g., seeking spiritual support) and spiritual struggle (e.g., anger at God) versus viral load, CD4 count, quality of life, HIV symptoms, depression, self-esteem, social support, and spiritual well-being in 429 patients with HIV/AIDS. Data were collected through patient interview and chart review at baseline and 12-18 months later from four clinical sites. At baseline, positive religious coping was associated with positive outcomes while spiritual struggle was associated with negative outcomes. In addition, high levels of positive religious coping and low levels of spiritual struggle were associated with small but significant improvements over time. These results have implications for assessing religious coping and designing interventions targeting spiritual struggle in patients with HIV/AIDS.

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These preliminary results suggest that breathing retraining is a feasible, acceptable and potentially efficacious intervention (although no significant differences between groups were found) for improving asthma symptoms in urban adolescents with asthma in a school-based setting.

Religious/spiritual (R/S) coping has been associated with health outcomes in chronically ill adults; however, little is known about how adolescents use R/S to cope with a chronic illness such as sickle cell disease (SCD). Using a mixed method approach (quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews), we examined R/S coping, spirituality, and health-related quality of life in 48 adolescents with SCD and 42 parents of adolescents with SCD. Adolescents reported high rates of religious attendance and belief in God, prayed often, and had high levels of spirituality (e.g., finding meaning/peace in their lives and deriving comfort from faith). Thirty-five percent of adolescents reported praying once or more a day for symptom management. The most common positive R/S coping strategies used by adolescents were: “Asked forgiveness for my sins” (73% of surveys) and “Sought God’s love and care” (73% of surveys). Most parents used R/S coping strategies to cope with their child’s illness. R/S coping was not significantly associated with HRQOL (p = NS). R/S coping, particularly prayer, was relevant for adolescents with SCD and their parents. Future studies should assess adolescents’ preferences for discussing R/S in the medical setting and whether R/S coping is related to HRQOL in larger samples.