• Psycho-oncology · Nov 2013

    Spiritual well-being in long-term colorectal cancer survivors with ostomies.

    • Joanna Bulkley, Carmit K McMullen, Mark C Hornbrook, Marcia Grant, Andrea Altschuler, Christopher S Wendel, and Robert S Krouse.
    • The Center for Health Research, Northwest/Hawaii/Southeast, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Portland, OR, USA.
    • Psychooncology. 2013 Nov 1; 22 (11): 2513-21.

    ObjectiveSpiritual well-being (SpWB) is integral to health-related quality of life. The challenges of colorectal cancer (CRC) and subsequent bodily changes can affect SpWB. We analyzed the SpWB of CRC survivors with ostomies.MethodsTwo-hundred-eighty-three long-term (≥ 5 years) CRC survivors with permanent ostomies completed the modified City of Hope Quality of Life-Ostomy (mCOH-QOL-O) questionnaire. An open-ended question elicited respondents' greatest challenge in living with an ostomy. We used content analysis to identify SpWB responses and develop themes. We analyzed responses on the three-item SpWB sub-scale.ResultsOpen-ended responses from 52% of participants contained SpWB content. Fifteen unique SpWB themes were identified. Sixty percent of individuals expressed positive themes such as "positive attitude", "I am fortunate", "appreciate life more", and "strength through religious faith". Negative themes, expressed by only 29% of respondents, included "struggling to cope", "not feeling 'normal' ", and "loss". Fifty-five percent of respondents expressed ambivalent themes including "learning acceptance", "an ostomy is the price for survival", "reason to be around despite suffering", and "continuing to cope despite challenges". The majority (64%) had a high SpWB sub-scale score.ConclusionsAlthough CRC survivors with ostomies infrequently mentioned negative SpWB themes as a major challenge, ambivalent themes were common. SpWB themes were often mentioned as a source of resilience or part of the struggle to adapt to an altered body after cancer surgery. Interventions to improve the quality of life of cancer survivors should contain program elements designed to address SpWB that support personal meaning, inner peace, inter connectedness, and belonging.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…