Korean J Adult Nurs.  2012 Dec;24(6):659-667.

Spiritual Health and Fatigue of Patients with Breast Cancer according to Treatment Phases

• Tae YS
• Choi GH
• Jung YK
• Kwon S

Abstract

PURPOSE
The study was to identify the level of Spiritual Health and Fatigue in women with breast cancer according to three treatment phases (post op phase, adjuvant phase, follow up phase).
METHODS
The research method was a cross-sectional descriptive study. Data were collected from 161 women patients with a diagnosis of breast cancer. Both in-patient and out-patient units from two general hospitals were the source of subjects. The subjects completed two standardized instruments: the "Spiritual Health Scale" developed by Highfield and the "Fatigue Scale" developed and revised by Piper. The data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, chi2, ANOVA, Scheffe test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and Multiple regression.
RESULTS
The subscale scores of Self-Esteem of spiritual health and fatigue in patients with breast cancer differed among the three treatment phases (F=3.14, p=.046; F=3.31, p=.039). Significant correlations were found between spiritual health and fatigue. The variables which explained 29% of the variance in fatigue in breast cancer patients were education, religious belief, economic status, and spiritual health.
CONCLUSION
The study results demonstrated that spiritual health significantly explain fatigue. It is needed to develop nursing interventions to improve the spiritual health of breast cancer patients to manage fatigue according to treatment phases.

MeSH Terms

Breast
Breast Neoplasms
Fatigue
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Hospitals, General
Humans
Outpatients
Piper
Religion
Spirituality