Role of religiosity, optimism, demographic characteristics and mental health problems among cancer patients.

Objective: To investigate the role of religiosity, optimism, depression, death anxiety and differences in demographic characteristics among cancer patients.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2018 to July 2019 in three different hospitals of Lahore and Faisalabad, Pakistan, and comprised patients with diagnosed stage 1 and 2 cancer. Non-cancer subjects were enrolled as the control group. Data was collected using the Short Muslim Practice and Brief Scale, the Siddiqui-Shah Depression Scale, Death Anxiety Scale and the revised version of Life Orientation Test. One-way analysis of variance and other tests were used for data analyses.

Results: Of the 400 subjects, 200(50%) each were cases and controls. Among the cases, 100(50%) each were males and females. There was a significant difference between cancer and non-cancer subjects on the variables of religiosity, optimism, depression and death anxiety (p<0.05). Significant gender differences were found on the variables of religiosity, depression and death anxiety (p<0.05), while the difference on the construct of optimism was non-significant among cancer patients (p>0.05). Cancer patients of rural and urban areas were significantly different on the variables of religiosity, depression and death anxiety (p<0.05), but the difference was non-significant on the optimism scale (p>0.05). Also, the differences on death anxiety scale were significantly related to the type of cancer (p<0.05).

Conclusions: There was a greater role of religiosity and optimism in controlling the level of depression and fear of death among cancer patients. Also, the role of gender, residential area and type of cancer was significant.