An Analysis of Structural Model of Spiritual Health Based on Health Anxiety, Positive Meta-emotion, and Pain Self-Efficacy Mediated by the Source of Internal Health Control in Men with Cancer

Cancer is considered to be one of the most important health and therapy issues in the world and in our country, especially among men, and is usually associated with significant clinical and psychological discomfort in the optimal use of coping strategies. The aim of this study was thus to analyze the structural model of spiritual health based on health anxiety, positive meta-emotion, pain self-efficacy mediated by the source of internal health control in men with cancer.

The research method is descriptive-correlational type of structural equation modeling. The statistical population consisted of men aged 45 to 65 years old with gastrointestinal cancers living in Golestan province in 1400. The sample size was estimated to be 230 people using Krejcie Morgan table. The convenience sampling method was used. The instruments of this research were in the form of questionnaires including health anxiety by Salkowski and Warwick (2002), metacognition and meta-emotion by Biro Montea (2010), pain self-efficacy by Nicholas (1980), spiritual health by Delman and Free (2004), source of health control by Wallston et al. 1978). To analyze the data, structural equation modeling technique was used in the LISREL8.71 software.

The results showed that health anxiety had a significant negative effect, and positive meta-emotion and self-efficacy had a significant positive effect on spiritual health (P <0.001). The source of internal health control mediated the effect of pain self-efficacy on spiritual health in a significant positive way (P <0.01). The source of internal health control has a negative effect on health anxiety and a significant positive effect on positive meta-emotion and pain self-efficacy (P <0.005).

The results of the present study support the hypothesis that health anxiety, positive meta-emotion, and pain self-efficacy are related to spiritual health and can affect spiritual health through the mediation of health control source.