Spiritual well-being among outpatients with cancer receiving concurrent oncologic and palliative care

Spiritual well-being is threatened by cancer, but its correlation with other illness symptoms and the efficacy of palliative care (PC) to ameliorate spiritual suffering are not well understood.

Eight hundred eighty-three patients surveyed had an average age of 65.6 years, with 54.1 % female, 69.3 % white, and 49.3 % married. Half (452, 51.2 %) had metastatic disease. Religious affiliation was reported as Christian by 20.3 %, Catholic by 18.7 %, and “none” by 39.0 %. Baseline spiritual well-being was not significantly correlated with age, gender, race, cancer stage, marital status, insurance provider, or having a religious affiliation. Greater spiritual well-being was correlated with greater quality of life (<p = 0.001) and well-being (<p = 0.001), and with less depression (<p = 0.001), anxiety (<p = 0.001), fatigue (p = 0.005), and pain (p = 0.01). In multiple regression analysis, the associations persisted between spiritual well-being and anxiety, depression, fatigue, and quality of life (R ² = 0.677). Spiritual well-being improved comparing mean scores immediately prior to initial PC consultation with those at first follow-up (2.89 vs. 3.23 on a 1–5 scale, p = 0.005).

Among patients with cancer receiving concurrent oncologic and palliative care, spiritual well-being was not associated with patient age, gender, or race, or disease stage. It was correlated with physical and emotional symptoms. Spiritual well-being scores improved from just prior to the initial PC consultation to just prior to the first PC follow-up visit.