Faith and Mental Health in an Oncology Population

This study compares faith attitudes versus behaviors for their relationship to mental health in current cancer patients and survivors. This cross-sectional survey of ambulatory patients included Hodge's intrinsic religious motivation scale, Benson & Spilka's concept of God scale, frequ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and health
Authors: Meisenhelder, Janice Bell (Author) ; Lauria, Marisa (Author) ; Schaeffer, Nancy J. (Author) ; Younger, Jerry (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. [2013]
In: Journal of religion and health
Further subjects:B Spirituality
B Oncology
B Faith
B Mental Health
B Cancer
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:This study compares faith attitudes versus behaviors for their relationship to mental health in current cancer patients and survivors. This cross-sectional survey of ambulatory patients included Hodge's intrinsic religious motivation scale, Benson & Spilka's concept of God scale, frequency of prayer, and the mental health subscale of the MOS SF-36. One hundred and fifty-eighty patients, mostly women with breast cancer, completed questionnaires (92% return). Mental health was positively related to a concept of a loving God (P < .001) and negatively related to the concept of a stern God (P < .002). Mental health was unrelated to goal of treatment (cure vs. chemotherapy/palliation), frequency of prayer, intrinsic faith motivation, or physical pain. Viewing God as loving was strongly related to better mental health, even in the presence of a poor prognosis or pain.
ISSN:1573-6571
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-011-9497-1