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

Published On 2022-04-15T11:00:04+05:30 | Updated On 15 April 2022 2:27 PM IST

Overview

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.

Speakers

Dr. Nandita Mohan

Dr. Nandita Mohan is a practicing pediatric dentist with more than 5 years of clinical work experience. Along with this, she is equally interested in keeping herself up to date about the latest developments in the field of medicine and dentistry which is the driving force for her to be in association with Medical Dialogues. She also has her name attached with many publications; both national and international. She has pursued her BDS from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore and later went to enter her dream specialty (MDS) in the Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry from Pt. B.D. Sharma University of Health Sciences. Through all the years of experience, her core interest in learning something new has never stopped. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751