Spiritual and Religious Involvement Relate to End-of-Life Decision-Making in Patients Undergoing Coronary Bypass Graft Surgery

Abstract

Settling one's end-of-life affairs in the face of coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) can be both distressing and beneficial for individuals who are facing imminent threat of death. Religious thoughts, common in this context, may offer some comfort and support for facing this process. However, few empirical studies have addressed the role of religious or spiritual involvement in the settling of one's end-of-life affairs in cardiac patients. This prospective study investigated the effect of religious and spiritual factors on whether decisions regarding end-of-life had been made in a sample of middle-aged and older patients undergoing CABG. In particular, we expected faith factors of an intrinsic nature would promote this decision. Two weeks pre-operatively, patients (mean age = 65 years) were recruited for interviews. One hundred seventy-seven CABG patients completed the pre-operative and post-operative follow-up one month after surgery, while 96 offered information regarding their engagement in settling end-of-life affairs. Cardiac indicators were obtained from the computerized Society of Thoracic Surgeons' Adult Cardiac Database (STS). Multiple regression analyses revealed that private religiousness increased the likelihood of having engaged in end-of-life decision planning by nearly half again ( OR= .1.47, 95% CI = 1.10, 1.96, p < .05) and that experiencing reverence in secular contexts nearly doubled the likelihood ( OR = .1.99, 95% CI = 1.16, 3.44, p < .05). The reduced likelihood of having made plans was observed among those who scored higher on experiencing reverence in religious contexts ( OR = .44, 95% CI = .23, .87, p < .05) and among patients using petitionary prayer ( OR = .21, 95% CI = .04, .98, p < .05). These effects manifested after controlling for age, impacted functioning, and number of diseased arteries. Therefore, faith factors appear to have independent but complex effects on end-of-life decision making in middle-aged and older cardiac patients.