William Atkins
Wednesday, 18 March 2009 21:23
Science -
Health
Page 2 of 3
The Boston researchers studied 345 patients with advanced cancer between January 1, 2003 and August 31, 2007.
The patients were accessed with the Brief RCOPE (Religious/spiritual coping short form), which consists of 14 points that determine the amount of positive or negative religious coping patterns within those people studied.
Positive religious coping was defined in the Boston study with such positive terms as people
"seeking God's love and care."
On the other hand, negative religious coping was defined with such negative terms as people
“tormented by the belief that God was punishing or abandoning them.”
Interviews were initially held, along with later assessments of psychosocial and religious/spiritual measures. They were also asked questions pertaining to advance care planning and end-of-life treatment preferences. Intensive life-prolonging care was defined as
“receipt of mechanical ventilation or resuscitation in the last week of life.”
Further questions and interviews were held up to the point of death. In all, from the time of the first interview to the last, was, on average, 122 days.
External factors were excluded from the analysis, such as age, ethnicity/race, and psychosocial factors (such as coping styles, spiritual support, etc.).
Page three concludes with the conclusion of the study.
