Annals of Oncology

letters to the editor

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Spirituality and religion in cancer

introduction
Measurement of religion, religiousness, and spirituality for the purposes of health research has been an evolving enterprise. Beginning with Durkheims Suicide (1897/1951), and continuing through the 1960s and 1970s, epidemiological studies focused on mortality or health differences among religious afliations. A second wave of studies beginning in 1979 [1] took an entirely different approach. Religiousness was measured with a single item asking about attendance at services or membership in a congregation; the individuals specic religious afliation, the basis for all the previous research, was now usually absent [2]. Also,

Volume 21 | No. 4 | April 2010

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spirituality is an essential component of the care of patients with cancer and those that are dying.

Annals of Oncology

spirituality and cancer

Cancer patients do not expect spiritual solutions from oncology team members, but they wish to feel comfortable enough to raise spiritual issues and not be met with fear, judgmental attitudes, or dismissive comments. Spiritual needs may not be explicit in all illness phases, yet spirituality is not only conned to the areas of palliative or end-of-life care [3]. Lopez et al. showed that the level of overall spiritual well-being was high, as were the levels of self-efcacy and life scheme (meaningfulness), as measured with two subscales [4].

religion and cancer

The relationship between religion and health has been studied in several countries and the results were positive. An association between religious afliation, behavior, and lifestyle indicating that, even in relatively secular societies, it is a population attribute that should be given more consideration in studies of population health [5]. Understanding of a patients religious status and information relating to the spiritual domain can be useful to clinicians working in chronic illness, surgery of cancer, and terminal care, where it can effect patient morale [6]. S. R. Mousavi* & M. E. Akdari
Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Cancer Center, Tehran, Iran (*E-mail: Seyed29@yahoo.com)

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references
1. Berkman LF, Syme SL. Social networks, host resistance and mortality: A nine-year follow-up of Alameda County residents. Am J Epidemiol 1979; 109: 186204. 2. Idler E. Religious observance and health: theory and research. In Warner Schaie KW, Krause N, Booth A (eds): Religious Inuences on Health and Well-Being of the Elderly, New York: Springer 2004; 2043. 3. Surbone A, Baider L. The spiritual dimension of cancer care. Crit Rev Oncol Hematol 2009. 4. Lopez AJ, McAcuffrey R, Quinn Grifn MT, Fitzpatrick JJ. Spiritual well-being and practices among women with gynecologic cancer. Oncol Nurs Forum 2009; 36(3): 300305. 5. ORailly D, Rosato M. Religious afliation and mortality in Northern Ireland: beyond Catholic and Protestant. Soc Sci Med 2008; 66(7): 16371645. 6. OConnell KA, Skevington SM. To measure or not to measure? Reviewing the assessment of spirituality and religion in health-related quality of life. Chronic Illn 2007; 3(1): 7787.

doi:10.1093/annonc/mdp604 Published online 20 January 2010

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Volume 21 | No. 4 | April 2010