Relaxation response and spirituality: Pathways to improve psychological outcomes in cardiac rehabilitation.
OBJECTIVE
Studies have shown beneficial effects from practicing the relaxation response (RR). Various pathways for these effects have been investigated. Previous small studies suggest that spirituality might be a pathway for the health effects of the RR. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that increased spiritual well-being by eliciting the RR is one pathway resulting in improved psychological outcomes.


METHODS
This observational study included 845 outpatients who completed a 13-week mind/body Cardiac Rehabilitation Program. Patients self-reported RR practice time in a questionnaire before and after the 13-week program. Similarly, data on spiritual well-being, measured by the subscale of Spiritual Growth of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II, were collected. The psychological distress levels were measured by the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised. We tested the mediation effect of spiritual well-being using regression analyses.


RESULTS
Significant increases in RR practice time (75 min/week, effect size/ES=1.05) and spiritual well-being scores (ES=0.71) were observed after participants completed the program (P<.0001). Patients also improved on measures of depression, anxiety, hostility and the global severity index with medium effect sizes (0.25 to 0.48, P<.0001). Greater increases in RR practice time were associated with enhanced spiritual well-being (beta=.08, P=.01); and enhanced spiritual well-being was associated with improvements in psychological outcomes (beta=-0.14 to -0.22, P<.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Our data demonstrated a possible dose-response relationship among RR practice, spiritual and psychological well-being. Furthermore, the data support the hypothesis that spiritual well-being may serve as a pathway of how RR elicitation improves psychological outcomes. These findings might contribute to improved psychological care of cardiac patients.
Chang
Bei-Hung
BH
Department of Health Policy and Management, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. bhchang@bu.edu
Casey
Aggie
A
Dusek
Jeffery A
JA
Benson
Herbert
H
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D057189:Checklist; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D009720:Nurse Clinicians; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000523:psychology; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012064:Relaxation Therapy; D029181:Spirituality; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires