The effect of two praying methods on quality of life of hospitalized cancer patients

BACKGROUND: Improving quality of life (QoL) has been an important consideration in patients with chronic diseases such as cancer particularly in last two decades. Praying is a valuable nursing care to improve cancer patients’ QoL. However, controversies still exist about the effect of different types of praying. This study was conducted to compare the impact of private and collective praying on cancer patients’ QoL. METHODS: A controlled clinical trial was conducted with 70 cancer patients who admitted to Seyyed al Shohada Hospital of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2010. Patients were randomly assigned to two groups of private and collective praying. QoL was assessed using the World Health Organization Quality Of Life Brief (WHOQoL-BREF) questionnaire. RESULTS: In both private and collective praying methods, the QoL scores increased after the intervention. The mean difference of QoL score between two groups of private praying [0.16(0.32)] and collective praying [0.23(0.15)] was statistically significant (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that praying might improve cancer patients’ QoL. In addition, collective praying might be more efficacious than private praying in improving cancer patients’ QoL. Further studies with a larger sample size are needed to confirm its effectiveness.