self-esteem and spiritual health in cancer patients under chemotherapy in semnan university of medical sciences in 2014

Background and objectives: cancer as a frightening disease may affect people's confidence in their abilities, sense of controlling over their lives, and in other words self-esteem. spiritual health as the main aspect of health can be an important source for calmness, decrease in existential distress, improvement of self-esteem and coping with the disease. this study was conducted to investigate the correlation between spiritual health and self-esteem in iranian cancer patients. methods: this cross-sectional study was accomplished by obtaining rosenberg self-esteem and paloutzian & ellison scales questionnaire from a convenience sample of 170 cancer patients who were referred for chemotherapy to hospitals of semnan university of medical sciences. data were analyzed by spss using one-way analysis of variance and pearson correlation, and level of significance (p) was considered <0.05. results: study group has shown a mean self-esteem score of 18.5±3.5 and 98.1±13.2 for spiritual well- being. there was a direct correlation between spiritual health and self- esteem after adjustment for sex, age, education level and marital status (r=0.55). conclusion: this study demonstrated that spiritual health was significantly associated with self-esteem in cancer patients. considering critical conditions of cancer patients and their urgent need for maintaining and improving spiritual well-being, enhancement of spiritual health and self-esteem should be further emphasized in the treatment programs of these patients such that they and their families that represent a large population can be assisted to overcome the critical conditions.