SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGIOSITY IN ONCOLOGY: A SOCIAL STUDY OF PATIENTS’ NEEDS

Background: Cancer diagnosis and treatment impose significant psychological and existential burdens, particularly in high-religiosity settings like Nigeria, where spirituality and religion often serve as key coping resources. This study examined spiritual well-being (SWB) and its associations with perceived relational and existential outcomes among oncology patients using a validated tool in a Nigerian tertiary cancer centre.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the Medserve-Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Cancer Centre (MLCC) from January to April 2023. A convenience sample of 304 adult patients with histologically/radiologically confirmed cancer, receiving active treatment, and able to consent, completed the interviewer-administered EORTC QLQ-SWB32 questionnaire. The tool assesses SWB across subscales: Relationships with Others (RO), Relationships with Self (RS), Relationships with Someone or Something Greater (RSG), Existential Issues (EX), Relationship with God (RG), and a global SWB item. Descriptive statistics summarised subscale scores (transformed 0-100 scale, higher = better functioning). Independent samples t-tests compared subscale means between believers and non-believers (significance at p < 0.05). Data were analysed using IBM SPSS version 27.

Results: Participants were predominantly believers (98.8% reported belief in God or something greater). Mean subscale scores were highest for RG (90.87 ± 17.86) and RSG (85.51 ± 13.77), and lowest for RS (61.03 ± 18.79). Global SWB averaged 79.79 ± 19.55, with 78.1% rating it as good or very good. Believers scored significantly higher than non-believers on RSG (85.8 vs. 57.0, p=0.001), RG (90.9 vs. 68.8, p=0.002), and global SWB (80.3 vs. 39.3, p<0.001). No significant differences emerged for RO, RS, or EX subscales.

Conclusion: In this Nigerian oncology sample with near-universal religiosity, spiritual well-being was generally high, particularly in relational and transcendent domains. Believers reported superior global SWB and connections to something greater, suggesting spirituality supports existential coping and perceived quality of life markers. These findings underscore the need for routine spiritual needs assessment and integration of spiritual care in holistic oncology services in high-religiosity African contexts. Further longitudinal and multivariable studies are warranted to clarify causal pathways.