A Randomized, Blinded Study of the Impact of Intercessory Prayer on Spiritual Well-being in Patients With Cancer

作者：Olver Ian N^*; Dutney Andrew

来源：Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 2012, 18(5): 18-27.

Context circle Cochrane reviews have analyzed multiple studies on intercessory prayer that treatment teams had added to health interventions; however, the reviewers could draw no conclusions about the efficacy of prayer because the studies showed either positive or no effects and used different endpoints and methodologies. %26lt;br%26gt;Objective circle The study intended to determine whether researchers could measure the impact of intercessory prayer on spiritual well-being. %26lt;br%26gt;Design circle The research team conducted a randomized blinded trial of intercessory prayer added to normal cancer treatment with participants agreeing to complete quality of life (QOL) and spiritual well-being scales at baseline and 6 months later. The research team had shown previously that spiritual well-being is an important, unique domain in the assessment of QOL. Participants remained blinded to the randomization. Based on a previous study, the research team determined that the study required a sample of 1000 participants to detect small differences (P = .05, 2-tailed, 80% power). %26lt;br%26gt;Setting circle The research team performed this research at the Royal Adelaide Hospital Cancer Centre, South Australia, Australia. %26lt;br%26gt;Participants: circle Participants were patients at the cancer center between June 2003 and May 2008. Of 999 participants with mixed diagnoses who completed the baseline questionnaires, 66.6% provided follow-up. The average age was 61 years, and most participants were married/de facto (living with partners), were Australians or New Zealanders living in Australia, and were Christian. %26lt;br%26gt;Intervention circle The research team asked an external group offering Christian intercessory prayer to add the study%26apos;s participants to their usual prayer lists. They received details about the participants, but this information was not sufficient to identify them. %26lt;br%26gt;Outcome Measures circle The research team used the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Spiritual Well-being questionnaire to assess spiritual well-being and QOL. %26lt;br%26gt;Results circle The intervention group showed significantly greater improvements over time for the primary endpoint of spiritual well-being as compared to the control group (P = .03, partial eta(2) = .01). The study found a similar result for emotional well-being (P = .04, partial eta(2) = .01) and functional well-being (P=.06, partial eta(2)=.01). %26lt;br%26gt;Conclusions circle Participants with cancer whom the research team randomly allocated to the experimental group to receive remote intercessory prayer showed small but significant improvements in spiritual well-being.

• 出版日期2012-10