Investigation of the relationship between spiritual well-being and quality of life in breast cancer patients

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between spiritual well-being, and quality of life, for breast cancer patients. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 91 breast cancer patients treated at Fırat University Hospital. A personal information form was used in the first part of the questionnaire. In the second part; the European Cancer Treatment and Organizing Committee Quality of Life Scale (EORTC QLQ-C30) were used to measure the quality of life (QoL) and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp12) was used to measure the spiritual well-being of the breast cancer patients. The result shows that the participants had an overall QoL score of 44.76 (SD=18.96), within the domains of EORTC QLQ-C30; in General health status, Role functioning has the highest score with a mean of 60.32 (SD =8.87) and emotional functioning has the lowest score with mean 25.73 (SD=23.46) while in symptoms, the financial impact has the highest mean score of 71.54 (SD=23.65); while diarrhea with a lowest mean score of 21.61 (SD=34.60). FACIT-Sp12 shows a total score of 24.79 (SD=4.80). There is a positive relationship between each domain of FACIT- Sp12 and the QLQ-C30 (p<0.005) except symptom subscale. The correlation coefficient showed a negative correlation between each of the subscales of FACIT- Sp12 and the QLQ-C30 (p<0.001). As symptoms decrease, quality of life and spiritual well-being increase. The results of our study showed that the level of quality of life and spiritual well-being of breast cancer patients were found to be poor. Considering the relationship between spirituality and quality of life, it is necessary to meet the needs of breast cancer with more psycho-spiritual interventions