Spirituality and people with potentially fatal diagnoses.

When individuals must deal with potentially fatal diseases their lives change in many ways. This qualitative study was designed to investigate this critical life event. The authors interviewed a convenience sample (N = 15) of 10 women with cancer and 5 men with HIV/AIDS. Findings suggest that spirituality is an essential component to feelings of health and well-being. Many of the subjects viewed spirituality as a bridge between hopelessness and meaningfulness in life. Those who had found meaning in their disease thought they had a better quality of life now than they had before the diagnosis.