How Spirituality and Fatigue Interact to Affect Quality of Life in Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer

The cognitive theory of stress and coping by Lazarus and Folkman can explain how individuals cope with a stressful chronic illness, specifically metastatic breast cancer (MBC). If an individual appraises their MBC as stressful and concludes that they have the coping resources and ability to use them, they may effectively cope with and adapt to the stressor. Spirituality may be an important coping mechanism for patients with MBC, while symptoms of fatigue may lead to increased risk of developing psychiatric comorbidities such as depression, anxiety and panic disorders, eating disorders, substance abuse disorders, and somatization disorder. The limited number of studies conducted on the topics have examined relationships between spirituality, fatigue, QoL, and/or distress (i.e., symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression) among patients and survivors of cancer, as research on patients with MBC is limited. This present study aimed to fill the gap in the literature by examining whether an interaction exists between spirituality and fatigue that affects QoL in the long term. Specifically, this project aimed to examine whether levels of spirituality would interact with fatigue to predict QoL over two periods of data collection. It was hypothesized that the combination of low fatigue and high spirituality would predict the highest levels of QoL. The sample consisted of 25 patients with MBC who were recruited from an MBC clinic in the Midwest. Measures consisted of data collected from participants’ electronic health records (EHRs) and from self-report validated questionnaires. Due to low statistical power attributed to a small sample size, hypotheses were modified so that analyses could focus on bivariate correlations instead of the originally planned upon linear regressions, although power was still limited. Therefore, it was hypothesized that spirituality would be positively related to QoL and negatively related to fatigue, while fatigue would be negatively related to QoL. Findings indicated that Spiritual Peace, Spiritual Faith, and total spirituality were positively associated with Emotional QoL. Spiritual Peace was positively associated with Functional QoL, and Functional QoL was significantly negatively associated with fatigue. All other associations did not reach statistical significance based on p-values. Implications, limitations, and further directions are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology (UMKC)

Grantor

University of Missouri--Kansas City

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Primgaard, Anahi Ramirez

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bennett, Kymberley K.

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10355/97803

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/97803