The Effect of Spiritual Interventions on the Quality of Life Among Patients With Common Cancers in Southwest Iran
Ali Ahmadi1 and Mohammed-Reza Noormohammadi21Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Modeling in Health Research Center, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran.
2Research Institute for Islamic Medicine, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran.
Corresponding Author E-mail: noorshkums@yahoo.com
Abstract: Spirituality, sometimes referred to as spiritual health, refers to believing in the existence of an entity or power beyond material life, developing an in-depth sense of unity or attachment to the universe. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of spiritual teachings on life expectancy and quality of life among patients with common cancers in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, southwest Iran.Pretest-posttest on 200 people with different type of cancer in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari. First, the questionnaires of quality of life and life expectancy were used to gather the patients’ data. Then, healthy lifestyle from the Quran perspective was taught to the people by a psychologist, a counselor, and a clergyman. 8 weeks after completion of the teachings, the questionnaires were re-administered to the patients. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (including mean and standard deviation) and analytical statistics (paired t-test).The results showed that the intervention had no effect on the quality of life in these patients (P>0.05). Moreover, there was not significant effect of the intervention in relation to life expectancy statistics before and after the intervention (P=0.857).The inconsistency between the findings of this study and those of other studies, confirming religion's effect in promoting the quality of life and life expectancy, may be attributed to the difference in the methods, study population, and sample size among the works, or high level of religious beliefs among patients with different type of cancer in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province.
Keywords: Quality of Life; Spiritual Therapies; Cancer Back to TOC