Relationships Among Spiritual Well-being, Adjustment, and Quality of Life in Patients With a Stoma: A Cross-sectional, Descriptive Study

Individual spiritual preferences and adjustment to a stoma may affect quality of life.This study aimed to investigate the relationship among and the factors that influence spiritual well-being, adjustment to a stoma, and quality of life in patients with a stoma.A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted over 6 months among outpatients with a stoma recruited from general surgery and enterostomal therapy clinics of a university hospital in Turkey. Turkish-speaking patients who were at least 18 years of age and had a colostomy or ileostomy for at least 2 months were eligible to participate. Participants independently (or with researcher help if necessary) completed the Sociodemographic Characteristics Form; the 12-item Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp) that utilized 5-point, Likert-style responses to items regarding meaning, peace, and faith (score range 0-48; higher scores indicate more spiritual well-being); the 23-item Ostomy Adjustment Scale that utilized 5-point, Likert-style responses to items regarding acceptance worry, social adjustment, and anger (score range 0-92; higher scores indicate better adjustment); and the 21-item Stoma Quality of Life Scale that used a combination of scoring methods (score range 0-100; higher scores imply better quality of life) and Likert-style questions. Data were transferred without patient names from the questionnaires directly into a software program for analysis. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and hierarchical regression analyses were applied.Of the 95 participants (52 [54.7%] men; mean participant age 56.54 ± 13.74 years), mean scores were 31.66 ± 7.39 for spiritual well-being, 51.73 ± 12.28 for adjustment to a stoma, and 55.27 ± 16.45 for quality of life. A statistically significant difference was found between the mean spiritual well-being and quality-of-life (r = 0.525, P <.001) and adjustment to a stoma (r = .549, P <.001) scores, and a significant relationship was noted between the mean quality-of-life and adjustment scores (r = 0.698, P <.001). Stoma adjustment and quality of life significantly correlated with the meaning and peace subscales of FACIT-Sp (P <.001). No correlation was found between faith or stoma adjustment and quality of life. Hierarchical regression analysis showed the most significant factors affecting quality of life were adjustment to a stoma (β = .541) and spiritual well-being (β = .190).Adjustment and spirituality are important quality-of-life factors in patients with a stoma. Clinical assessments and practices should include the meaning and peace aspects of spiritual well-being and how well the patient is adjusting to the stoma. Well-designed randomized controlled studies that evaluate the impact of the spiritual dimension of nursing care on patient outcomes as well as the effect of spiritual well-being on adjustment to stoma are suggested.