End-of-life experience and its toll on quality of life and spirituality: A cross-sectional study

Background: Breast and cervical/uterine cancer affect body parts that have symbolic meaning for women.Women with this diagnosis at the end-of-life often experience anxiety and depression that severely impacts their quality of life (QoL). Aims: This study aims to determine how the end-of-life experie...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: da Silva Sousa, Serlandia, Reis, Andréa Dias [UNESP], Barbosa Neto, José Osvaldo, Santos Garcia, João Batista
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:Brasil
Recursos:Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UNESP
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.unesp.br:11449/222060
Acesso em linha:http://dx.doi.org/10.12968/ijpn.2021.27.5.263
http://hdl.handle.net/11449/222060
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:End of life
Quality of life
Self-efficacy
Spirituality
Descrição
Resumo:Background: Breast and cervical/uterine cancer affect body parts that have symbolic meaning for women.Women with this diagnosis at the end-of-life often experience anxiety and depression that severely impacts their quality of life (QoL). Aims: This study aims to determine how the end-of-life experience impacts on the QoL and spirituality of women with advanced cancer. Methods: End-of-life patients and their caregivers were evaluated regarding religious and spiritual coping, depression and self-efficacy. Caregivers were interviewed regarding patients’ QoL at the end-of-life. A spearman correlation test was used to evaluate correlation between variables. Findings: Several dimensions of positive religious and spiritual coping stood out for patients at the end of life. However, patients often experienced a negative revaluation of God. Patients reported experiencing low self-efficacy, depression and high levels of stress.The length of hospital stay, time spent in intensive care units and depression also correlated to the amount of worry and stress a patient experienced. Conclusions: The end-of-life patients had a poor quality of life, and experienced depression, but also used spiritual beliefs and religion as a means of coping with their end-of-life experience.