Context : Spirituality is a relatively new field of research, but it can be a real personal resource for adjusting to difficult life events.
Aim : evaluate the impact of spirituality on anxiety disorders and quality of life in a population of cardiac patients. Our two hypotheses are that spirituality and spiritual well-being negatively influence psychological distress; spirituality shows an effect on improving the quality of life.
Method : Volunteers to participate were asked to answer our different questionnaires: spirituality measured by IWSRI, spiritual well-being measured by SBWS, anxiety disorders by HADS and quality of life by the WHOQOL-brief.
Results : We observe that women tend to report a higher sense of peace (p <.05) and more anxiety disorders than men (p <.05). Existential well-being is negatively correlated with anxiety (p <.05) and depressive (p <.001) disorders. The regression models proposed to explain the quality of physical health include different indicators by spiritual group affiliation.
Discussion : Giving a framework of meaning can enable patients to cope with the disease, through a personal journey involving a better existential understanding and a reinterpretation of the difficult life situation. Perceiving a sense of meaning and life goals provides individuals with psychological well-being.