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A meta‐analytic approach to examining the correlation between religion/spirituality and mental health in cancer
Open accessAbstract
Religion and spirituality (R/S) are patient‐centered factors and often are resources for managing the emotional sequelae of the cancer experience. Studies investigating the correlation between R/S (eg, beliefs, experiences, coping) and mental health (eg, depression, anxiety, well being) in cancer have used very heterogeneous measures and have produced correspondingly inconsistent results. A meaningful synthesis of these findings has been lacking; thus, the objective of this review was to conduct a meta‐analysis of the research on R/S and mental health. Four electronic databases were systematically reviewed, and 2073 abstracts met initial selection criteria. Reviewer pairs applied standardized coding schemes to extract indices of the correlation between R/S and mental health. In total, 617 effect sizes from 148 eligible studies were synthesized using meta‐analytic generalized estimating equations, and subgroup analyses were performed to examine moderators of effects. The estimated mean correlation (Fisher z) was 0.19 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.16‐0.23), which varied as a function of R/S dimensions: affective R/S (z = 0.38; 95% CI, 0.33‐0.43), behavioral R/S (z = 0.03; 95% CI, −0.02‐0.08), cognitive R/S (z = 0.10; 95% CI, 0.06‐0.14), and ‘other’ R/S (z = 0.08; 95% CI, 0.03‐0.13). Aggregate, study‐level demographic and clinical factors were not predictive of the relation between R/S and mental health. There was little indication of publication or reporting biases. The correlation between R/S and mental health generally was positive. The strength of that correlation was modest and varied as a function of the R/S dimensions and mental health domains assessed. The identification of optimal R/S measures and more sophisticated methodological approaches are needed to advance research. Cancer 2015;121:3769–3778. © 2015 American Cancer Society.
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“The strongest relationships were found between affective dimensions of RS (e.g., sense of meaning, purpose, or connection to a source larger than oneself) and mental health outcomes, whereas behavioral RS constructs (e.g., service attendance, prayer and meditation) showed few significant associations with health, except for a modest positive relationship with social health outcomes.”
From Advancing our understanding of religion and spirituality in the context of behavioral medicine (2017) · cites this paper as Salsman et al., 2015
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“Recent meta-analyses of 1341 effects drawn from over 44,000 patients with cancer demonstrated an overall positive relationship between RS and self-reported measures of health outcomes (Park et al., 2015) but the strength of that relationship varied as a function of both the RS dimension and the physical (Jim et al., 2015), mental (Salsman et al., 2015), and social (Sherman et al., 2015) outcomes”
From Advancing our understanding of religion and spirituality in the context of behavioral medicine (2017) · cites this paper as Salsman et al., 2015
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Metadata
- Authors
- Salsman, J. M., Pustejovsky, J. E., Jim, H. S. L., Munoz, A. R., Merluzzi, T. V., George, L., Park, C. L., Danhauer, S. C., Sherman, A. C., Snyder, M. A., & Fitchett, G.
- Affiliations
- Northwestern University (US)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Moffitt Cancer Center (US)
- University of Illinois Chicago (US)
- University of Notre Dame (US)
- University of Connecticut (US)
- Wake Forest University (US)
- University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (US)
- Rush University Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Salsman, John M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Cancer
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2015-08-10
- Volume
- 121
- Issue
- 21
- Pages
- 3769-3778
- ISSN
- 0008-543X (ISSN-L)
- 1097-0142
- PMC
- PMC4618157
- OpenAlex
- W2127587946
- Cited by
- 232
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 7
- FWCI
- 3.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Cancer (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (K07CA158008)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Workplace Spirituality and Leadership
- Keywords
- religion and spirituality, mental health, cancer patients, depression, anxiety, well-being, coping
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Cognition, Depression, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Quality of Life, Religion and Medicine, Stress, Psychological, Prevalence, Spirituality
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