QL-21SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN PRIMARY BRAIN TUMOR PATIENTS

Spirituality has been shown to impact patients' attitudes and decisions about treatment and end-of-life care when coping with chronic illnesses such as cancer. Previous studies have documented that health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and spiritual well-being are positively correlated, but little is known about the phenomenon in the primary brain tumor population. Therefore, we sought to measure spiritual well-being in primary brain tumor patients and evaluate whether it was associated with HRQoL. Data collected within the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke as part of the...

Spirituality has been shown to impact patients' attitudes and decisions about treatment and end-of-life care when coping with chronic illnesses such as cancer. Previous studies have documented that health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and spiritual well-being are positively correlated, but little is known about the phenomenon in the primary brain tumor population. Therefore, we sought to measure spiritual well-being in primary brain tumor patients and evaluate whether it was associated with HRQoL. Data collected within the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke as part of the PRoGREss registry between 12/16/2013 and 2/28/2014 were queried retrospectively. In addition to demographic and clinical information, data was obtained from patient reported outcome questionnaires including Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Brain Cancer (FACT-Br) with a score range from 0-184 and Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-Sp12) with a score range from 0-48. Correlation analyses were performed with the Pearson correlation coefficient. For this study, 845 subjects were identified. Mean age was 49.8 (SD = 13.5) years and 54.6% were male, 56.8% married, and 34.1% college educated. Median score for FACT-Br Total was 135.9 with range from 40.8 to 184 and median score for FACIT-Sp12 was 38.0 with range from 8.0 to 48.0. A significant positive correlation existed between scores on FACT-Br and FACIT-Sp12 with r = 0.636 (p <0.0001). Similar results were seen for correlations between FACT-Br total score and FACIT-Sp12 subscales (Faith r = 0.338, p < 0.0001 and Meaning/Peace r = 0.712, p < 0.0001). These results highlight the relationship between spirituality and HRQoL in the brain tumor population and suggest that implementing strategies to measure and encourage spiritual well-being may be one avenue to improve HRQoL.