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Many terminally ill patients rely on religion and spirituality for support. How religious beliefs contribute to actual treatment decisions was explored in a prospective multisite study of 345 patients with advanced cancer; all were assessed at baseline for psychosocial factors, end-of-life care preferences, and levels of positive (e.g., “seeking God’s love and care”) and negative (e.g., “wondering whether God has abandoned me”) religious coping. Patients were followed until death (median follow-up, 122 days); medical records were abstracted for the last week of life.
In analyses adjusted for age and ethnicity, patients with high levels of positive religious coping were significantly more likely to receive mechanical ventilation (odds ratio, …