The relationship between spiritual well-being, care burden and comfort in parents of children with cancer diagnosis and affecting factors

Parent has an important place in protecting and maintaining the health of individuals. The spiritual needs of parents or individuals need to be supported in the treatment of the disease. In the case of a pediatric patient, the negative consequences of the illness process or in the negative situations that arise during the illness process, spirituality is beneficial for the parents to cope positively. In recent years, emphasis has been placed on issues such as spiritual health. This study is a descriptive study aimed to investigate the relationship between spiritual well-being, care burden and comfort in parents of children diagnosed with cancer, and affecting factors. The study was carried out between June 11 and September 11, 2018 in the outpatient clinic of "Tülay Aktaş Pediatric Oncology Department of Ege University Faculty of Medicine Hospital" in Izmir. The study was conducted with parents who are first degree relatives (parents) of the child diagnosed with cancer, who have no communication problems, who are between 18-65 years old, who can read and write, who meet the sample selection criteria and agree to participate. The sample size of the study consisted of the parents of children diagnosed with cancer who presented to the outpatient clinic between June 2018 and September 2018. The study was conducted with 102 parents. Data; "Individual Information Form (IIF), Three-Factor Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS), Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale (ZCBS), General Comfort Questionery (GCQ)" were collected. Written and verbal informed consent was obtained from the the parents who agreed to participate in the study from "Informed Volunteer Consent Form". The data obtained from the study were evaluated by using "Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 20" program by using descriptive analyzes, "T test in independent groups", "one way analysis of variance", "Kruskal Wallis analysis of variance", "Mann-Whithney U" test and correlation analysis. The mean SWBS score of the parents aged between 21-56 years was 120.19 ± 12. 94, mean ZCBS score was 40, 21 ± 11. 49, and the GCQ score average was 2.79 ± 0.031. No significant difference was found between the SWBS, ZCBS and GCQ score average according to the age group, marital status, education level, economic status, child age group, diagnosis of child cancer, parental care difficulties and spirituality (p> 0.05). A significant difference was found between the mean scores of the ZCBS according to the gender and economic status of the parents (p <0.05). A significant difference was found between the mean scores of GCQ according to the duration of cancer diagnosis of the children and the presence of another child in need of care (p <0.05). The relationship between the parents SWBS and ZCBS was found to be insignificant (p> 0.05). The relationship between SWBS and GCQ was found to be positively low (p = 0.006, r = 0.271). The relationship between the mean scores of ZCBS and GCQ was negatively low (p = 0.003, r = -0.295). The relationship between the mean age of the parents and the mean age of the children and the mean scores of SWBS, ZCBS, and GCQ were not significant (p> 0.05). The relationship between the duration of cancer diagnosis of the children and the mean GCQ score of the parents was found to be positively significant (p = 0.002, r = 0.301 *). The results of the study is the spiritual well-being can be increased by informing the parents between the ages of 21-56 and providing spiritual support. It is thought that for parents who have negative experience, support by coping methods, if necessary, by taking expert opinion, will increase the spiritual well-being and the care burdens will be alleviated and their comfort levels will increase.