spiritual well-being in cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy

Objective: Spiritual well-being harmonizes several dimensions of human's life and is essential for coping with diseases. Chronic illnesses such as cancer cause crisis in physical, psychological and spiritual dimensions of ones life. This study aimed to measure the spiritual well-being in cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy. Materials & Methods: In this descriptive and cross-sectional study, Paloutzian & Ellison's Spiritual well-being Self-report questionnaire was completed by 130 cancer patients. Patients were recruited using sequential sampling method. The inclusion criteria were being more than 16 years old, and being able to read and write. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and chi-square test in SPSS (version 16). Results: The study findings revealed that the mean scores for spiritual well-being, religious well-being and existential well-being were (88/42±15/02), (44/28±7/77) and (44/14±8/44) respectively. Also, statistically significant relations were not found between age, gender, marital status and educational levels with spiritual well-being (P>0/001). ‍‍‍Conclusion: This study showed that the level of spiritual well-being was moderate in cancer patients. Moreover, the level of religious well-being was similar existential well-being. Hence, health care professionals should consider their caring programs by their culture, manners & mores which will enhance the spiritual well-being