Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2005; 10: 11
Spirituality and religiosity (SpR) have become a subject of interest in health care as they have been recognised to have the potential to prevent, heal or cope with illness. However, there is as yet only limited understanding of how patients themselves view the impact of SpR on their health and well-being. To raise these questions and to more precisely survey the basic attitudes of patients with severe diseases towards SpR and their adjustment to their illness, we developed the SpREUK questionnaire.
In order to validate a short form of our previously described SpREUK 1.1 instrument, reliability and factor analysis of the 22-item short form (SpREUK-SF22) were performed according to the standard procedures. The test sample contained 489 subjects (69% females; mean age 50 ± 13 years; 82% Christian confession, 15% none; 31% cancer, 14% multiple sclerosis, 15% other chronic diseases, 4% acute diseases, 36% healthy individuals). For the short form, 3 new items from the SpREUK pool were added.
The factors ‘Search for meaningful support’, ‘Positive interpretation of disease’ and ‘Trust in a higher source’ were found to be stable in the SpREUK-SF22 (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.9159; explains 62.8% of variance), while the two factors of the SpREUK 1.1 that require an SpR attitude now made up just one factor, termed ‘Support in relations with life through SpR’ (alpha = 0.9304; explains 63.3% of variance). Corresponding SpREUK 1.1 and SpREUK-SF22 subscales substantially correlate with one another.
The SpREUK-SF22 is a short form version that retains the characteristics of its full-length counterpart. The short form appears to be a good choice for assessing a patient’s interest in spiritual concerns that is not biased for or against a particular religious commitment. Moreover it addresses the topic of ‘Positive interpretation of disease’, which seems to be of outstanding importance for patients with life-changing diseases.
