Chronic kidney disease, spirituality and religiosity: a systematic overview with the list of eligible studies

Abstract

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) has a tremendous psychological burden, which sometimes is overlooked or underestimated in the daily clinical routine practice, since in the health care process physicians prefer to focus on the objective aspects of the pathology. In this contribution, we make a systematic overview of the relationship between spirituality/religiosity and CKD, an emerging theme which only recently has raised interest from the scientific community despite its importance. We investigate different variables, axis and categories (from the quality of life to customer's satisfaction, treatment adherence and therapeutic alliance, clinical parameters, as well as overall survival, and coping strategies adopted by the patient). Moreover, we underpin the principal clinically relevant implications (like the possibility of psycho-therapeutic interventions based on the spiritual and religious attitudes of the patient) and we discuss the main gaps, methodological barriers and difficulties in the field, fostering and advocating further research and clinical studies. This last aspect, together with the quality assessment of the studies, will be further explored in the second part of the study.

Exploring the Connections between Medical Rehabilitation, Faith and Spirituality

“…Religious coping is defined as the use of behavioral and cognitive techniques in stressful life events in a multidimensional construct with positive and negative effects on outcomes, while religiosity is considered a use of individual beliefs, values, practices and rituals related to faith. There are multiple studies that prove the efficiency of religious coping in different areas of medical rehabilitation, like in pulmonary [7], depression [8], addiction [9], cardiovascular [10], chronic kidney disease [11,12], epilepsy [13] and chronic pain [14]. Recent research conducted by highlights that while healthcare professionals acknowledge the significance of spirituality in aiding the adjustment of clients and their families after spinal cord injury, it is often not integrated into rehabilitation practices [15] Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to assess how spirituality and faith are perceived by patients undergoing a rehabilitation program, their vision on praying and its role during the process.…”