SynthesisCancer2015
A meta-analytic review of religious or spiritual involvement and social health among cancer patients.
Synthesis in Cancer, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The development of the Religious Health Interventions in Behavioural Science (RHIBS) Taxonomy: a scientific classification of religious practices in health.Translational behavioral medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Palliative Care in the Global Setting: ASCO Resource-Stratified Practice Guideline.Journal of global oncology · 2018Guideline
- Are religion and spirituality barriers or facilitators to treatment for HIV: a systematic review of the literature.AIDS care · 2017Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A meta-analytic approach to examining the correlation between religion/spirituality and mental health in cancer.Cancer · 2015Pooled it
- Pain and Spirituality Outcomes Among Women With Advanced Breast Cancer Participating in a Foot Reflexology Trial.Oncology nursing forum · 2021Trial
- It Takes a Village: Sources of Spiritual Care in Hospice That Support the Well-being of African-American Hospice Patients and Their Caregivers in the USA.Journal of religion and health · 2026Article
- Spiritual Care in Serious Illness: A Narrative Review of Low- and Middle-Income Country Evidence.Annals of global health · 2026Review
- Spirituality and Pain among Post-treatment Cancer Patients in Poland: Mediation by Meaning in Life and Pain Coping Strategies.Journal of religion and health · 2025Article
- Christian cancer survivors' global meaning violations and well-being.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Article
- Spiritual care in outpatient oncology: a qualitative study of focus groups with cancer center chaplains.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Article
- Influence of religion and spirituality on head and neck cancer patients and their caregivers: a protocol for a scoping review.Systematic reviews · 2025Article
- A single-arm pilot of MyInspiration: a novel digital resource to support spiritual needs of patients undergoing cancer-directed surgery.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2024Article
- Article
- Spirituality in Critical Care: An Observational Study of the Perceptions of Professionals, Patients and Families, in Spain and Latin America.Journal of religion and health · 2023Observational
- Current status and influencing factors of spiritual needs of patients with advanced cancer: a cross-sectional study.BMC nursing · 2023Article
- Assessing the impact of religious resources and struggle on well-being: a report from the American Cancer Society's Study of Cancer Survivors-I.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2023Article
- "Letting go" - Relinquishing control of illness outcomes to God and quality of life: Meaning/peace as a mediating mechanism in religious coping with cancer.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2023Article
- Breast Cancer and Spirituality Among Women in Poland: A Case-Control Study.Journal of religion and health · 2022Article
- Spiritual well-being, distress and quality of life in Hispanic women diagnosed with cancer undergoing treatment with chemotherapy.Psycho-oncology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Religion and spirituality (R/S) play an important role in the daily lives of many cancer patients. There has been great interest in determining whether R/S factors are related to clinically relevant health outcomes. In this meta-analytic review, the authors examined associations between dimensions of R/S and social health (eg, social roles and relationships). A systematic search of the PubMed, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature databases was conducted, and data were extracted by 4 pairs of investigators. Bivariate associations between specific R/S dimensions and social health outcomes were examined in a meta-analysis using a generalized estimating equation approach. In total, 78 independent samples encompassing 14,277 patients were included in the meta-analysis. Social health was significantly associated with overall R/S (Fisher z effect size = .20; P < .001) and with each of the R/S dimensions (affective R/S effect size = 0.31 [P < .001]; cognitive R/S effect size = .10 [P < .01]; behavioral R/S effect size = .08 [P < .05]; and 'other' R/S effect size = .13 [P < .001]). Within these dimensions, specific variables tied to social health included spiritual well being, spiritual struggle, images of God, R/S beliefs, and composite R/S measures (all P values < .05). None of the demographic or clinical moderating variables examined were significant. Results suggest that several R/S dimensions are modestly associated with patients' capacity to maintain satisfying social roles and relationships in the context of cancer. Further research is needed to examine the temporal nature of these associations and the mechanisms that underlie them.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.