The Relationship between spiritual wellbeing with Stress, Anxiety, and Some Demographic Variables in Women with Breast Cancer Referring to the Specialized Cancer Treatment Center in Isfahan, Iran

Stress and anxiety are consideredto be one of the the most common and effective disorders in patients with breast cancer. There was aParadoxical relationship between stress and anxiety، with spiritual wellbeing in cancer patients، such as breast cancer، in the findings of studies from other countries. Moreover، there was a lack of similar studies in Iran. Therefore، this led researchersto design and perform a study to investigate the relationship between spiritual wellbeing with stress، anxiety and demographic factors of female breast cancer patients، who referred to specialized cancer treatment center in Isfahan، Iran، in 2011. This was a descriptive-analyticaland cross-sectional study conducted on cancer patients with simple sampling methodology. A total number of 266 hospitalized women with breast cancer were enrolled into the study. The data collection tools used in this study were the demographic information questionnaire، Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-42)، and the Ellison-PaloutzianSpiritual Wellbeing Scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 18، descriptive statistical methods (frequency distribution، mean،and standard deviation)، and analytic statistical methods (student’s t-test، Spearman’scorrelation، and Pearson’scorrelation coefficient). The results of this study showed that the spiritual wellbeing score of the majority of subjects (58. 9%) was in the range of medium and then high (41. 1%). Average score of the religious aspect of spiritual wellbeing (52±7. 22) was higher than the average score of the existential aspect of spiritual wellbeing (43. 19±9. 67). Pearson’scorrelation coefficient showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between stress in patients and all aspects of spiritual wellbeing. Moreover،the results showed a significant correlation between anxiety with the totalscoreof spiritual wellbeing andthe existential aspect of spiritual wellbeing. However، there is no significant relationship between anxiety and the religious aspect of spiritual wellbeing. The results suggested the absence of any significant relationship between spiritual wellbeing and demographic variables. Findings showed that patients with higher scores of spiritual wellbeing had lower anxiety and stress levels. Therefore، it is recommended that more attention be paid to all aspects of these patients، especially their spiritual dimension،during their treatment. Furthermore، due to thelack of a statistically significant relationship between spiritual wellbeing and demographic variables in the present study،andthe paradoxical findings of other studies in this field، further investigation is required.