Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Palliative and Supportive Care, cilt.23, 2025 (SSCI, Scopus)
Objectives. This study was conducted to examine the relationship between cancer patients’ spiritual needs and their quality of life and depression levels. Methods. This cross-sectional, exploratory study was conducted between March 2023 and November 2024. The study population consisted of cancer patients hospitalized in medical oncology departments at a university hospital in eastern Turkey. The sample consisted of 250 patients, determined by power analysis. To collect data, the “Demographic Information Form,” “Spiritual Needs Assessment Scale,” “EORTC QLQ-C30 Version 3.0 Quality of Life Scale,” and “Beck Depression Scale” were used to evaluate the patients’ sociodemographic characteristics and disease process. Results. There was a weak, negative, statistically significant relationship between patients’ spiritual needs and the subdimensions of the quality of life scale, specifically the general perceived health status (r = −0.297, p < 0.001), physical (r = −0.446, p < 0.001), role (r = −0.423, p < 0.001), emotional (r = −0.472, p < 0.001), cognitive (r = −0.458, p < 0.001) and social (r = −0.443, p < 0.001) functions, and finally, a weak positive correlation was found between the symptoms experienced (r = 0.376, p < 0.001) and depression levels. Additionally, a weak positive correlation between spiritual needs and depression level (r = 0.374, p < 0.001) was identified. Functional areas, depression, education level, diagnosis duration, and symptoms were identified as variables predicting spiritual needs. Significance of results. In conclusion, it was determined that as the spiritual needs of cancer patients increased, their quality of life decreased and the severity of depression increased.