Centre for Policy on Ageing



Private prayer and optimism in middle-aged and older patients awaiting cardiac surgery
Author(s)	Amy L Ai, Christopher Peterson, Steven F Bolling
Journal title	The Gerontologist, vol 42, no 1, February 2002
Pages	pp 70-81
Keywords	Prayers ; Attitude ; Middle aged ; Age groups [elderly] ; In-patients ; Heart disease ; Surgery ; Social surveys ; United States of America.
Annotation	Patients commonly use private prayer as a coping strategy. In this study, the measure of prayer included three aspects: belief in the importance of private prayer; faith in the efficacy of prayer on the basis of previous experiences; and intention to use prayer to cope with the distress associated with surgery. A first interview was administered 2 weeks before surgery, and optimism was measured the day before surgery by telephone. Private prayer predicted optimism, along with older age, better socioeconomic resources, and healthier affect. Neither measures of general religiosity nor any type of prayers used by patients was associated with optimism. Suggestions were made for clinicians to improve spiritual assessment and care, and for researchers to consider spiritual coping in clinical situations. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020806204 A
Classmark	OWP: DP: SE: BB: LF7: CQH: LKA: 3F: 7T
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.