Assessment of Spiritual Care Needs and Quality of Life of Cancer Patients in a Tertiary Hospital in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

AbstractPurpose In Africa, cancer is considered a death sentence. Its impact can be debilitating for both the patient and those who care for them. The objective of the study was to assess the Spiritual care needs and Quality of life of Cancer patients in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. Methods This study is a cross-sectional design and systematically recruited 302 cancer patients who visited the cancer registry and outpatient departments. A standardized and validated Spiritual needs questionnaire (SpNQ) and WHO Quality of Life (WHOQL)were used to collect data. Data was analyzed with SPSS version 23 with level of significance set at p < 0.05. Results The preponderance cancer among respondents was breast cancer (48.4%) followed by prostate cancer (13.6%). Majority of the respondents admitted to have “strong” spiritual needs. Categorization of the spiritual need score was below average in 20% of the respondent which indicated those with low spiritual need and majority (79.8%) of the patients had high spiritual needs. Majority of the respondents had poor quality of life in all the four domains. The spiritual care needs of respondents were significantly associated with the quality of life of the respondents particularly in the psychological domain (p = 0.040) and social domain (p = 0.005). Conclusion This study revealed high spiritual needs among cancer patients and poor quality of life of cancer patients. Providing for spiritual needs could improve cancer patients’ quality of life. Spiritual support should be improved in our setting, as a strategy to enhance cancer patient`s quality of life.