Abstract
Relationships among spirituality, benefit finding from illness experiences, anxiety, depression, and level of physical symptoms were investigated in cancer patients, and predictors of spirituality were examined. Cancer patients (N=30) in an oncology ward of a general hospital completed the Japanese Benefit Finding Scale (JBFS) to assesses benefits, the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Sp (FACIT-Sp) to assess spiritual well-being, the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) to assess anxiety and depression, and the Anderson Symptom Inventory (ASI) to assess symptom levels. Results indicated that the FACIT-Sp score was positively correlated with each subdomain of the JBFS, and negatively correlated with ASI and HADS. Moreover, “Role and Priority” was the most important predictor of FACIT-Sp. These results suggest that support by medical staff for benefit finding from illness experiences contribute to promoting spirituality. Moreover, “Role and Priority” might be particularly important for spirituality.
