Associations between sex, age and spiritual well‐being scores on the EORTC QLQ‐SWB32 for patients receiving palliative care for cancer: A further analysis of data from an international validation study

Abstract

Objective The EORTC QOL Group has recently completed the cross‐cultural development and validation of a standalone measure of spiritual well‐being (SWB) for cancer patients receiving palliative care: the EORTC QLQ‐SWB32. The measure includes four scales: Relationships with Others, Relationship with Self, Relationship with Someone or Something Greater, and Existential, plus a Global‐SWB item. This paper reports on further research investigating relationships between sex, age and SWB for patients receiving palliative care for cancer—adjusting for other socio‐demographic, clinical and function variables, including WHO performance status and EORTC QLQ‐C15‐PAL emotional and physical function scores. Methods Cross‐sectional data from the validation study were used, and chi‐square, independent t tests, Mann–Whitney U tests and multiple regression analyses applied. Results The study included 451 participants with advanced and incurable cancer, from 14 countries. Adjusted analyses found better scores for female participants than males on three of the four EORTC QLQ‐SWB32 subscales; Relationship with others, Relationship with Someone or Something Greater and Existential plus Global‐SWB. Older age was positively associated with better Relationship with Self. Conclusion The findings from our participants suggest that it might be beneficial if healthcare providers seeking to address patients’ spiritual needs pay particular attention to male patients, younger patients and those with poor emotional functioning.

Spiritual Well-Being for Croatian Cancer Patients: Validation and Applicability of the Croatian Version of the EORTC QLQ-SWB32

“…The primary aim of our main study was to explore the structure and validity of a Croatian version of the SWB32 with patient participants in Croatia. We found that this measure was comprehensible and acceptable to all participants, with quantitative findings broadly equivalent to those found in the international study with palliative patients [8], Median values of scale scores in our study were mostly consistent with those in other published studies [8,12,13,19]. For each of the four multi-item scales, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was above the threshold of 0.6.…”

“…The secondary aim of our study was to investigate known-group comparisons, examining associations between participants' socio-demographic characteristics and clinical parameters and their scores on the SWB32 scales. We found statistically significant differences for several of our study variables, but, like the international SWB32 validation study [19], we found no differences for marital status, in contrast to other studies with other SWB measures [33,34], although it should be noted that the SWB32 and these measures have distinct conceptualisations of SWB [20], and that these studies were conducted in the USA, so their findings may reflect specific geo-cultural effects.…”

“…For sex, women scored higher on RSG, EX, RG, and Global-SWB. In the validation study [8,19], and the two Chinese studies [12,13], female participants also scored significantly higher on RSG, EX, and Global-SWB. Studies using other measures of spirituality or SWB (the Spiritual Interests Related to Illness Tool (SpIRIT) [33] and the Spiritual Needs Inventory (SNI) [35]) have also found that women have greater SWB than men [33][34][35][36].…”

“…Confirmatory factor analysis examined the structure of the Croatian SWB32 when used with curative patients. We compared this with findings from the international study with palliative patients [8,19]. Our study identified four factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 (Keiser criterion), explaining 66% of the variance.…”

Dignity and loss of dignity: Experiences of older women living with incurable cancer at home

“…Contrary to this present study, Chochinov's dignity conservatory repertoire is neither gender-specific nor specifically based on experiences of older women with incurable cancer living at home (Chochinov et al, 2002). Previous studies have shown that gender and diagnosis may affect existential well-being as well as influence the number of physical and psychological problems when nearing end-of-life (Rohde et al, 2019;Vehling & Mehnert, 2014). Since these perspectives may be relevant to the experiences of dignity, we believe this present study adds to the body of knowledge through its gender perspective and the specific focus on older women with incurable cancer living at home .…”