The religiosity/spirituality of Latina breast cancer survivors and influence on health-related quality of life

Objective: The study evaluated the association of religiosity/ spirituality (R/S) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among Latina breast cancer survivors (BCS) in order to determine whether R/S would be positively correlated with HRQOL and whether R/S would significantly influence HRQOL. Methods: The cross-sectional study utilized self-report data from 117 Latina BCS survivors. R/S was measured with the Systems of Belief Inventory-15 Revised (SBI-15R) and HRQOL was measured with the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G). Analyses included calculation of descriptive statistics, t-tests, bivariate correlations, and multivariate analyses. Results: Latina BCS had very high levels of R/S and generally good HRQOL. The SBI-15R total score was positively correlated with FACT-G social well-being (SWB) (r = 0.266, p = 0.005), relationship with doctor (RWD) (r = 0.219, p = 0.020), and functional well-being (FWB) (r = 0.216, p = 0.022). Multivariate analyses revealed that SBI-15R was a significant predictor of FACT-G FWB (p = 0.041) and satisfaction with the relationship with the doctor (p = 0.050), where higher levels of R/S predicted higher levels of well-being. Conclusions: Latina BCS had very high levels of R/S, which were significantly, positively correlated with dimensions of HRQOL (SWB, FWB, RWD). Furthermore, these high levels of R/S predicted better FWB and satisfaction with the patient - doctor relationship while controlling for potentially confounding variables. Implications are discussed.