The Relationship between Spiritual Well-Being and Depression in Iranian Breast Cancer Patients

Breast cancer is considered as the most common as well as most effective malignancy in adult female population. It leads to deep psychological and emotional problems such as depression. Although findings of numerous studies revealed a significant relation between spiritual well-being and depression in cancer patients, some reasons such as paradoxical findings in foreign researches and absence of such a study in Iran encouraged us to design and perform a study to survey the relationship between spiritual well-being and depression in patients with breast cancer who referred to a cancer treatment center in Isfahan, Iran during 2011.

In this analytic study, 223 hospitalized breast cancer patients were selected by simple random sampling. The DASS-42 Inventory and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale were applied to measure depression and spiritual well-being, respectively. Data was analyzed in SPSS18 using statistical methods including independent t-test, Spearman and Pearson's correlation coefficients.

A total number of 223 patients with mean age of 48.6 ± 1.07 years participated in this study. Mean scores of religious aspect and existential aspect of spiritual well-being were 52.25 ± 7.08 and 42.87 ± 9.31, respectively. Mean total score of spiritual well-being was 94.87 ± 14.99. Mean depression score was 12.24 ± 9.58. There was a statistically significant relationship between depression in patients with both existential (P = 0.001; r = -22) and religious (P = 0.001; r = -48) aspects of spiritual well-being. Depression and total score of spiritual well-being were also significantly associated (P < 0.001; r = -41).

Our findings showed that patients with higher mean scores of spiritual well-being were less depressed. Therefore, in cases of refractory diseases such as cancer that affect the body, mind and spirit of patients, nurses could apply a holistic care approach with emphasis on spiritual approach to improve mental health and quality of life.