Study on the Efficacy of Spirituality-Based Intervention on Spiritual Well Being of Patients with Leukemia: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background: leukemia is the most common malignancy in young adults that hasa life-threatening nature which increases the patients' spiritual needs, leading toemergence of spiritual crises. however, evidences indicate that spiritual needs ofpatients and their spiritual well-being are not emphasized among health care personnel.according to the cultural, religious and social backgrounds as well as contradictoryfindings in studies, this study intends to determine the effects of a spiritual-basedintervention on spiritual well-being of patients with leukemia.methods: this randomized clinical trial was conducted at sayyed-al-shohadahospital (isfahan, iran) in 2012-2013. we randomly divided 64 adult patients withleukemia into experimental and control groups. in the experimental group, a spiritualbasedintervention that included supportive presence and support for religious ritualswas implemented for three days. both groups completed the palutzian and ellisonspiritual well-being questionnaire before and after the intervention. data was analyzedusing ancova, chi-square, the mann-whitney u-test, and paired and independentt-tests in spss (version 18, spss inc., chicago, il).results: there was a significant difference in the scores of the experimental groupbefore and after the intervention (p < 0.001). this difference was absent in the controlgroup. according to ancova results, the mean score of spiritual well-being afterspiritual-based intervention in the experimental group was more than the mean scoreof spiritual well-being in the control group. this result was statistically significant(p < 0.001, f=63.303)conclusion: our spiritual-based intervention promoted the spiritual well-beingof patients with leukemia. therefore, in cases of refractory diseases such asleukemia, nurses should apply a holistic care approach with emphasis onspirituality-based intervention.