(How) Do faith and spirituality help Spanish cancer patients?

What is it about?

There is some evidence that for may cancer patients, their faith and spirituality are helpful, even for their physical well-being. In this study with Spanish cancer patients (N = 351), recruited between October 2022 and April 2023, who generously contributed to this study with their availability and answers, we tried to find more about the psycho-social pathways of various elements which we consider key for such an impact of patients' personal faith on their disease / health. Analyses of our data showed the strong impact of negative emotions on one side and gratitude on the other side as significant pathways of such a mediating effect between faith (religiosity, spirituality) and physical well-being.

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Why is it important?

Although medical staff usually concentrates on their many medical tasks, this paper gives evidence to the clinical relevance of the faith and spirituality of the patients for their (subjective) physical well-being and quality of life. Therefore it is important to take care of these existential (spiritual) realities of the patients in an adequate way, both as spiritual care of the medical staff as well as active collaboration with specialized spiritual care/ pastoral care/ chaplains.

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