Religious attitude, spirituality and mental adjustment in Turkish geriatric oncology patients

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between religious attitudes and spirituality levels of geriatric oncology patients and their psychological reactions to cancer.

The sample consisted of 261 geriatric oncology patients who were inpatients in oncology and hematology clinics of a university hospital. The research was conducted between 30 July 2020 and 26 January 2022. Data were collected using the Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC) scale, the Ok-Religious Attitude (ORA) scale, and the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-being (FACIT-SP) scale. The effect of the ORA scale and FACIT-SP scale scores on the MAC scale were analyzed using path analysis.

A positive relationship was found between Spiritual Well-Being and Fighting (β = 0.028, p < 0.001) and Anxious Anticipation (β = 0.024, p < 0.001); a negative relationship was found between Fatalism (β = -0.023, p < 0.001), Helplessness/Hopelessness (β = -0.04, p < 0.001) and Denial/Avoidance (β = -0.026; p < 0.001). A positive relationship was found between Religious Attitude and Fighting Spirit (β = 0.154, p = 0.009) and Anxious Anticipation (β = 0.231, p < 0.001), while a negative relationship was found between Religious Attitude and Despair/Hopelessness (β = -0.413, p < 0.001).

Patients' religious attitudes and spiritual well-being levels affected their psychological reactions to cancer, increased their "fighting spirit" and their "anxious preoccupation" about the disease, and decreased their helplessness/hopelessness, fatalism, denial and avoidance.