Spirituality as a Mediator Between Social Support and Benefit Finding Among Advanced Cancer Patients

Abstract

BackgroundSocial support and benefit finding (BF) are important for cancer patients. The relationship between social support and BF has not been studied sufficiently in patients with advanced cancer, and the mechanism through which social support might influence BF is unclear.ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the relationship between social support and BF in Chinese patients with advanced cancer as mediated by their perceptions of spirituality.MethodsThis was a correlation study with a cross-sectional design. We recruited advanced-cancer patients (n = 208) from China. Patients’ sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were collected, and they were asked to complete the Benefit Finding Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List.ResultsSocial support was associated with greater spirituality and greater BF (P < .01). Spirituality was positively correlated with BF (P < .01). Results from mediation analysis identified that both the indirect effect of social support on BF via spirituality (indirect effect, 0.268; 95% confidence interval, 0.147–0.419) and its direct effect on BF (direct effect, 0.233; 95% confidence interval, 0.031–0.429) were statistically significant, suggesting a partial mediatory effect of spirituality between social support and BF.ConclusionsOur findings supported a positive association between social support and BF among Chinese advanced-cancer patients. The mediatory role of spirituality should provide a new perspective for augmentation of BF in these patients.Implications for PracticeInterventions that help enhance social support and spirituality in patients with advanced cancer could facilitate their BF.

Quality of life of elderly lung cancer patients on chemotherapy and factors associated with it: a cross-sectional study

“…The prevalence of negative coping strategies in our sample may re ect the particularly severe symptoms of lung cancer and our participants' relatively low disease-related knowledge, which can lead them to believe that their chemotherapy will be ineffective and their prognosis poor, in turn leading to fatalism. Such fatalism may be reinforced by traditional Chinese beliefs in the preordained nature of life and death [39]. Medical staff may be able to improve the QOL of elderly lung cancer patients by educating them about their disease and chemotherapy, alleviating the adverse effects of therapy as much as possible, and promoting the use of positive coping strategies.…”

Benefit finding in chronic kidney disease patients receiving hemodialysis: a cross-sectional study

“…However, negative emotions such as anxiety and depression were negatively correlated with BF [18,19]. Moreover, previous studies have reported that BF is positively correlated with social support [20], positive coping [21] and general self-efficacy [11] in patients. Specifically, the perceived social support of individuals may not be equal to the social support they actually receive [22], but positive coping may lead patients to more easily perceive social support, so as to more actively deal with negative events and improve BF [12].…”

Analysis of the actor-partner interdependence effect of social support on benefit finding in advanced lung cancer patients and caregivers

“…Relevant studies have demonstrated a positive correlation between social support and bene t ndings among cancer patients [13]. Nevertheless, most prior studies have concentrated more on the patients and neglected the caregivers with the primary caregiving responsibility.…”

“…In general, this study aimed to discuss the dyadic effects of social support and hope level on bene t nding in advanced lung cancer patient-caregiver dyads. Based on the literature review and theoretical support [13,17], we postulated that, in advanced lung cancer patient-caregiver dyads, social support and hope level were connected with bene t ndings, and the association between social support and bene t nding was mediated by hope level.…”