Connecting the dots: understanding the relationship between religiosity, psychological resilience and depression in breast cancer patients

Introduction: Death anxiety, fear of abundance, isolation, stigma of the disease and medication side effects are among the most common sources of anxiety and depression in patients with breast cancer. Purpose: To examine the possible relationship between religiosity, psychological resilience and depression on breast cancer patients. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional design was employed in this study which 152 breast cancer patients participated. Data were collected with the following instruments: Patient Health Questionnaire-2-item scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25 and Centrality of Religiosity Scale and a special designed sheet reporting social, demographic and clinical characteristics. Statistical analyses were conducted with the Statistical Package for the Social Science V25. Descriptive statistics such means, and frequencies were calculated and inferential statistics such correlation test, simple and multiple regression analysis were applied. Results: Approximately 1 in 3 patients suffered symptoms of depression while they were reporting moderate religiosity and resilience values. Based on the four-step mediation analysis religiosity was strongly associated with psychological resilience but it was not found to affect directly either depression, but psychological resilience can be a mediator between religiosity and depression. Conclusion: This study supports the notion thatreligiosity and spirituality can have a beneficial influence on health outcomes.