Abstract
The diagnosis of cancer can initiate considerable distress for patients. The threat to physical health and life can challenge a person's previously held beliefs concerning life and well-being. Religious beliefs and practices have been demonstrated to have positive effects on illness prevention, recovery from surgery, mental illness, and coping with physical illness. The aim of this study was to determine psychometric characteristics of the adapted prayer scale in Turkish patients with cancer. The sample of this study consisted of patients with any cancer in the outpatient and inpatient medical oncology clinics of this hospital. Factor analysis revealed 4 factors (meditative prayer, prayer activities, prayer experiences, and attitude toward prayer) with an eigenvalue of higher than 1.0. The 4 factors together explained 53.5% of the variance. Internal consistency of the scale had an overall coefficient Cronbach's [alpha] of .82. The subscales of the instrument had adequate reliabilities with Cronbach's [alpha]'s ranging from .67 to .88. The scale has potential applications for use both in research and as a screening tool in clinical settings. This scale should be further evaluated with a larger sample, in different regions in Turkey, and with diverse populations of the world.