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. 2025 Jun;64(3):2242-2257.
doi: 10.1007/s10943-024-02049-w. Epub 2024 Apr 25.

Spiritual Needs and Life Satisfaction of Lithuanian Palliative Care Patients

Riklikienė Olga  1 , Spirgienė Lina  2 , Rapolienė Jolita  3 , Karosas Laima  2
Affiliations

Spiritual Needs and Life Satisfaction of Lithuanian Palliative Care Patients

Riklikienė Olga et al. J Relig Health. 2025 Jun.

Abstract

Life satisfaction remains a value-based orientation and an important positive dimension of human well-being. Little is known about the relationship of this construct with palliative care patients' spiritual needs. This study assesses spiritual needs of palliative care patients and their association with life satisfaction. An exploratory cross-sectional study design was employed. During structured face-to-face interviews, 110 hospitalized palliative care patients responded to the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ) regarding their spiritual needs and the Brief Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Scale (BMLSS) regarding life satisfaction. The patients, generally satisfied with their health and future prospects, showed variations in life satisfaction based on education and family status. Stronger Existential and Inner Peace needs were expressed. Factors such as age, gender, education, family status, and religiosity make a difference in the expression of spiritual needs. Religiosity emerged as the key predictor for Religious, Inner Peace, and Existential needs. Life satisfaction had a very weak negative correlation (-0.207, p < 0.05) with Inner Peace needs. Recommendations include understanding and addressing the spiritual needs of palliative patients and preparing healthcare professionals to address them.

Keywords: Life satisfaction; Lithuania; Palliative care; Spiritual needs.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical Approval: The study protocol was approved by the Centre of Bioethics at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (No. BEC-SL(M)-40). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed Consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Conflict of Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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