Journal Club - Spirituality can improve quality of life for heart failure patients

The American College of Cardiology and other major cardiovascular societies recommend palliative care for heart failure patients. Spirituality is a core domain of palliative care, with the goal of identifying and addressing spiritual concerns and providing patients with appropriate spiritual and religious resources. However, limited research has been conducted on spirituality's impact on patients with heart failure, and there are no known tools designed to measure it.

Numerous studies have shown that spirituality can help improve quality of life for people with chronic diseases like cancer. According to a literature review published today in JACC Heart Failure, spirituality can also have a positive impact on quality of life for heart failure patients.

The research does mention that spirituality should be considered a potential target for palliative care interventions to improve patient-centered and clinical outcomes in these individuals.

Though spirituality is hard to define. Several definitions that describe spirituality as how individuals find meaning and purpose in life, which can be separated from religious beliefs. Researchers conducted a review in order to explore the current knowledge of spirituality in heart failure patients; describe associations between spirituality and quality of life, as well as patient outcomes. There were approximately 10 varying instruments used to measure spirituality, some simple, others complex.

Authors concluded that not only can spirituality improve quality of life for the patient, it can help support caregivers and potentially help heart failure patients from needing to be readmitted to the hospital. This can be used to identify heart failure patients in palliative care who are at risk for spiritual distress.