LIFE QUALITY RELATED TO SPIRITUAL HEALTH AND FACTORS AFFECTING IT IN PATIENTS AFFLICTED BY DIGESTIVE SYSTEM METASTATIC CANCER

INTRODUCTION: Spiritual health is of the basic elements in chronic patients. This concept can be considered as an important approach in promoting physical & spiritual health & life quality GOAL: The present study has been planned aiming to study life quality related to metastatic phase gastrointestinal (digestive) cancer referring to Mazandaran Medical Science University Educational Center in Iran. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This research has been done by descriptive-analytical method with 250 patients through available sampling method. The data has been collected via spiritual health & life quality questionnaire. The data analysis has been performed by calculating X², T Test, variance analysis and Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The mean & standard deviation of the patients were 12.56 ±94/47. The highest relationship between age & spirituality was related to ages over 60. There was a meaningful statistical relationship between spirituality & life quality scale (p<0.001), between spirituality & respiratory disorder (p<0.047), anorexia (p<0.004), exhaustion (p<0.006), financial problems (p<0.006). CONCLUSION: regarding the results, we can perceive the necessity behind improving spiritual health aspect as an influencing factor on the patients’ life quality. Through enhancing spiritual beliefs, it is possible to help the patients’ spiritual quality get promoted.