Spiritual health locus of control and life satisfaction among African American breast cancer survivors

Abstract

Purpose: To examine the relationships between spiritual health locus of control (SHLOC) and satisfaction with life in African American (AA) breast cancer survivors (BCS).

Methods: A total of 118 AABCS completed a mailed survey. Logistic regression models were used to examine relationships among variables of interest.

Results: Annual income and SHLOC were significantly associated with life satisfaction. In unadjusted analyses, high overall SHLOC increased the odds (odds ratio [OR] = 2.8) of being satisfied with life. The adjusted relationships between SHLOC and life satisfaction differed by income level. Among survivors with lower incomes, high spiritual life/faith and God’s grace subscale scores increased the odds of life satisfaction, when compared to those with higher incomes.

Conclusions: Our data indicated that high overall SHLOC was significantly related to higher odds of life satisfaction. Further, SHLOC may serve as a resource to bolster life satisfaction, especially in low-income AA BCS.

Keywords:

• Quality of life
• minorities
• breast cancer
• survivorship
• quantitative research

Disclosure statement

Both authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Financial disclosures

The authors have no financial disclosures.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by National Cancer Institute grants K01CA158000.