Spiritual well-being as a dimension of quality of life for patients with advanced cancer and AIDS and their family caregivers: Results of a longitudinal study

Abstract

Based on a longitudinal, quality-of-life study, this article presents pilot data regarding the spiritual well-being of patients with advanced cancer or AIDS and their family caregivers. Data include similarities and differences between the patient and caregiver populations and patient/family caregiver dyads as well as trends with regard to changes in spiritual well-being during the illness and dying process. The reliability of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale was examined for patient and caregiver groups, as was the relationship between selected demographic variables and spiritual well-being. Implications for practice are discussed.

Quality of Life of Patients with Advanced Cancer and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and their Family Caregivers

“…[16][17][18][19] Further studies are needed to compare differences in quality of life for AIDS and cancer caregivers. Interestingly, based on the Spiritual Well-being Scale (SWBS), 42 which was also administered in this current study and is discussed in another article, 43 AIDS caregivers were found to have lower spiritual well-being than cancer caregivers. The use of unidimensional instruments to measure a construct, such as spiritual well-being, may lead to different results when compared to multidimensional instruments such as the QLS that measured spiritual well-being as a subscale.…”

The Challenge of Quality Cancer Care for Family Caregivers

“…[19][20][21][22] Caregivers may use spirituality as a way of coping, to lower their level of depression. 23,24 Caregivers who had spiritual support through the trajectory of illness had better well-being. Those that scored higher on spirituality had lower stress.…”

Spiritual Expressions of African Americans and Whites in Cancer Pain

“…Integration of transcendence, whether in the form of polytheism (or pantheism), monotheism, or atheism, is also a function of culture (Johnson, Elbert-Avila, & Tulsky, 2005). It has been suggested that people with cancer have increased spiritual needs because of the existential stresses of living with a potentially life-threatening disease (Post-White, 2003; Sherman et al, 2005; Taylor, 2003). …”