Religious Coping is Associated with the Quality of Life of Patients with Advanced Cancer
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: For patients confronting a life-threatening illness such as advanced cancer, religious coping can be an important factor influencing their quality of life (QOL). OBJECTIVE: The study's main purpose was to examine the association between religious coping and QOL among 170 patients with advanced cancer. Both positive religious coping (e.g., benevolent religious appraisals) and negative religious coping (e.g., anger at God) and multiple dimensions of QOL (physical, physical symptom, psychological, existential, and support) were studied. DESIGN: Structured interviews were conducted with 170 patients recruited as part of an ongoing multi-institutional longitudinal evaluation of the prevalence of mental illness and patterns of mental health service utilization in advanced cancer patients and their primary informal caregivers. MEASUREMENTS: Patients completed measures of QOL (McGill QOL questionnaire), religious coping (Brief Measure of Religious Coping [RCOPE] and Multidimensional Measure of Religion/ Spirituality), self-efficacy (General Self-Efficacy Scale), and sociodemographic variables. RESULTS: Linear regression analyses revealed that after controlling for sociodemographic variables, lifetime history of depression and self-efficacy, greater use of positive religious coping was associated with better overall QOL as well as higher scores on the existential and support QOL dimensions. Greater use of positive religious coping was also related to more physical symptoms. In contrast, greater use of negative religious coping was related to poorer overall QOL and lower scores on the existential and psychological QOL dimensions. CONCLUSIONS: Findings show that religious coping plays an important role for the QOL of patients and the types of religious coping strategies used are related to better or poorer QOL.
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Many studies suggest PRC is associated with better emotional, interpersonal, and global functioning, better overall quality of life, and greater growth.
“Many studies suggest that PRC is associated with better emotional, interpersonal, and global functioning (Agarwal et al., 2010; Gall, 2004), better overall quality of life (Tarakeshwar et al., 2006), and greater growth (Urcuyo et al., 2005).”
From Advancing our understanding of religion and spirituality in the context of behavioral medicine (2017) · cites this paper as Tarakeshwar et al., 2006
PRC has also been associated with greater transplant concerns in multiple myeloma patients and more physical symptoms in advanced cancer patients.
“However, PRC has also been associated with greater transplant concerns in multiple myeloma patients (Sherman et al., 2009) and more physical symptoms in advanced cancer patients (Tarakeshwar et al., 2006).”
From Advancing our understanding of religion and spirituality in the context of behavioral medicine (2017) · cites this paper as Tarakeshwar et al., 2006
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- Authors
- Tarakeshwar, N., Vanderwerker, L. C., Paulk, E., Pearce, M. J., Kasl, S. V., & Prigerson, H. G.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
- The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Palliative Medicine
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2006-06
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 646-657
- ISSN
- 1096-6218 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-7740
- PMC
- PMC2504357
- OpenAlex
- W2026353303
- Cited by
- 391
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 28
- FWCI
- 12.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Palliative Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Fetzer Institute
- Open Society Institute
- Yale Cancer Center
- National Institutes of Health (5k01tw007136-02)
- National Institute on Aging (P30 AG21342, P30AG021342)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH056529, MH-56529, MH-63892, R01MH063892)
- National Cancer Institute (R01CA106370, CA106370)
- Fogarty International Center (K01 TW007136-01, K01 TW007136)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative and Oncologic Care
- Keywords
- religious coping, quality of life, advanced cancer, positive religious coping, negative religious coping, self-efficacy, depression, somatic symptoms, psychological quality of life, spiritual well-being
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Quality of Life, Regression Analysis, Religion
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