Role of religiosity, optimism, demographic characteristics and mental health problems among cancer patients

Abstract

Objectives: The present study aims to investigate the role of religiosity, optimism, depression, death anxiety and differences in demographic characteristics among cancer patients. Methodology: The current study was completed in 12 months period from July 2018 to July 2019 in three different hospitals of Lahore and Faisalabad. After getting approval from the Institutional Review Board, a sample of N= 400 participants were collected. Only diagnosed patients of cancer with stage 1 and 2 were taken. In study t-test and one-way analysis of variance were used to investigate the findings. Results: Findings indicate a significant difference between cancer and non-cancer patients on the variables of religiosity, optimism, depression, and death anxiety. Significant gender differences were found on the variables of religiosity, depression and death anxiety and the insignificant difference was found on the construct of optimism among cancer patients. Moreover, cancer patients of rural and urban areas were found significantly different on the variables of religiosity, depression and death anxiety and the insignificant difference was found on optimism scale. Besides, there were found significant differences in death anxiety scale among cancer patients with a different type of cancer. Conclusion: It is concluded that there is a greater role of religiosity and optimism in controlling the level of depression and fear of death among cancer patients. Also, there is a meaningful role of gender, residential area, and types of cancer. Keywords: Religiosity; Optimism; Depression; Death Anxiety; Gender; Rural-Urban; Continuous....

Depression, anxiety and behavioral activation in Mexican cancer patients: comparisons and predictive factors

“…Finally, after performing the multiple linear regression analysis, it was possible to identify that age and behavioral activation are factors that decrease depressive symptoms, while anxiety and religion have a negative effect on it. Strangely enough, the latter finding is different from the research carried out by Abbas et al 26 , where they point out that practicing some type of doctrine allows patients with any neoplasm to better cope with the disease. When analyzing this result, and considering what was stated in a systematic review of the literature carried out by Gallardo et al 15 , it can be said that the possible dimensions related to said effects are the type of religious attachment, the type of religious coping and spiritual struggle.…”

“…As for protective factors against anxiety and depression, religion/spirituality 26 and high level of resilience 27 have been suggested to be dispositional elements for reducing the symptoms associated with these disorders, but there are no conclusive data in this regard, but some elements that can favor behavioral activation include social support, appropriate activity programming, adherence to scheduled activities, religion, clear knowledge of values, and environmental reward measured by the relationship between activity increase and depressive symptoms. 25 It is evident that, despite these findings, it is necessary to continue identifying factors that contribute both to the presence of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and to an increase or decrease of behavioral activation with the purpose to improve evaluation and intervention mechanisms in the cancer population 28 .…”

Depresión, ansiedad y activación conductual en pacientes oncológicos mexicanos: comparaciones y factores predictores

“…Finalmente, tras realizar el análisis de regresión lineal múltiple fue posible identificar que la edad y la activación conductual, son factores que disminuyen la sintomatología depresiva, en cambio, la ansiedad y la religión tienen un efecto negativo sobre esta. Curiosamente este último hallazgo es distinto a la investigación realizada por Abbas et al 26 en donde señalan que practicar algún tipo de doctrina permite que los pacientes con alguna neoplasia afronten de mejor manera la enfermedad. Al análisis de este resultado y considerando lo expuesto en una revisión sistemática de la literatura llevada a cabo por Gallardo et al 15 puede decirse que las posibles dimensiones relacionadas con dichos efectos son el tipo de apego religioso, el tipo de afrontamiento religioso y la lucha espiritual.…”