Life review interviews on the spiritual well-being of terminally ill cancer patients

Goals: The aims of this study were ( 1) to evaluate the treatment efficacy of life review interviews on the spiritual well-being of terminally ill cancer patients, and ( 2) to explore any differences in the responses of patients who obtained clinical benefits and those who did not. Materials and methods: Structured life review interviews were conducted with 12 patients in a palliative care unit in Japan. They completed the SELT-M (Skalen zur Erfassung von Lebens qualitat bei Tumorkranken-Modified Version) questionnaire before and after the interviews. The patients were classified into two groups: effective ( patients who showed an increase in the SELT-M scores after the intervention) and noneffective groups. Meaningful spoken sentences from the patients' life reviews were transcribed and correspondence analysis was conducted on the sentences using text mining software. Results: The mean overall QOL score and spirituality subscale score of the SELT-M significantly increased after the life reviews from 2.57 +/- 0.61 to 3.58 +/- 1.0 (P=0.013) and 2.57 +/- 0.61 to 3.14 +/- 2.25 (P=0.023), respectively. Three dimensions were extracted from the effective group based on the scores " Positive view of life," "Pleasure in daily activities and good human relationships," and " Balanced evaluation of life." Similarly, three dimensions were extracted from the noneffective group: " Worries about future caused by disease," " Conflicts in family relationship problems," and " Confrontation of practical problems." Conclusion: Life review interviews may be effective in improving the spiritual well-being of terminally ill cancer patients. The potential predictors of treatment success are " positive view of life," " pleasure in daily activities and good human relationships," and a " balanced evaluation of life," while those of treatment failure are " worries about future caused by disease," " conflicts in family relationships," and " confrontation of practical problems." Further intervention trials on patients with predictors of treatment success are promising.