Correlations Between Spiritual Beliefs and Health‐Related Quality of Life of Chronic Hemodialysis Patients in Taiwan

Abstract

This study evaluated the correlations between spiritual beliefs and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of hemodialysis (HD) patients in Taiwan. Participants had to complete two questionnaires: the 36-item Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire and the Royal Free Interview for Spiritual and Religious Beliefs. They were then divided into three groups according to their strength of spiritual beliefs-having no, weak, or strong beliefs. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data among groups were compared. Correlations between spiritual beliefs and HRQOL were then determined by the analysis of covariance and the post hoc Scheffe tests. Six hundred thirty-three patients completed the study. There were more women in the group of patients with strong beliefs (P = 0.005) and more less-educated patients in the group of patients with weak beliefs (P = 0.005). Patients with no or with strong spiritual beliefs had higher role physical (P = 0.01) and social functioning (SF) (P = 0.001) scores than patients with weak beliefs. After adjustment for gender, age, marital status, education, comorbidities, and time on dialysis, patients with no or with strong spiritual beliefs were found to have higher SF scores (P = 0.02) than patients with weak beliefs. HD patients with no or strong spiritual beliefs had higher SF HRQOL than those with weak spiritual beliefs.

Quality of life and well‐being of people receiving haemodialysis treatment in Scotland: A cross‐sectional survey

“…There were no studies identified from the UK to examine the relationship between spirituality and religion and the QOL/HRQOL of patients with ESRD. Sample sizes ranged from as low as 53 (Patel et al, 2002) to as high as 633 (Kao et al, 2009). Six of the studies specifically indicated the use of a cross-sectional design, whereas five studies did not specify a specific design although they seemed cross-sectional in nature.…”

“…The sample size in the quantitative studies varied from as low as 51 participants (Song and Hanson, 2009) to as high as 633 participants (Kao et al, 2009). Four studies had ≤100 participants (51-74 participants), seven studies had a sample size ranging from 100 ≤ 200 and five studies had a sample size of ≥ 200 participants (200-633).…”

“…Finkelstein et al (2007) found in another study that scores on the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire (SWBQ) were associated with several QOL domains of the SF-36 questionnaire, with a caveat that none of these values were reported to highlight the strength or direction of the association. Likewise, Kao et al, (2009) carried out a large cross-sectional study (n=633) in Taiwan and found that patients with no or with strong beliefs had higher role physical (p=.001) and social functioning (p=.001) scores than patients with weak beliefs. Even after adjusting for gender, time on dialysis, age, marital status, education, and comorbidities, patients with no or with strong spiritual beliefs still had a higher social functioning scores (p=.02) than patients with weak beliefs.…”

“…Five studies explicitly examined the relationships between spirituality or spiritual beliefs and the QOL/HRQOL of patients receiving HD treatment (Kimmel et al, 2003;Finkelstein et al, 2007;Ko et al, 2007;Kao et al, 2009;Davison and Jhangri, 2010).…”

“…Six of the studies specifically indicated the use of a cross-sectional design, whereas five studies did not specify a specific design although they seemed cross-sectional in nature. All used valid measures to assess spirituality and QOL such as the Free Interview for Spiritual and Religious Beliefs Scale (Kao et al, 2009), the Spiritual Perspective Scale and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (Davison and Jhangri, 2010), McGill QOL questionnaire (Patel et al, 2002) and the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (SF-36) (Thomas and Washington, 2011).…”