Ascertaining the Religious Coping Strategies among Women Living with Cervical Cancer in the Greater Accra Region: A Case of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the religious coping strategies among women living with cervical cancer in the Greater Accra region of Ghana.  The study employed quantitative research approach specifically descriptive survey research design. The population included all women diagnosed with cervical cancer, 18 years and above and receiving treatment at the National Radiotherapy Centre and Nuclear Medicine of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra. A sample size of 113 was arrived at given a population of 160 using Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sampling formulae. Quota sampling was used to select participants for this study. The instruments used for the study was Brief Religious Cope (Brief RCOPE) by Pargament, Koenig and Perez (2000). Also, descriptive statistics thus mean and standard deviation was used in analyzing research question 1 and 2 whiles One-Way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used in examining the difference in religious coping practices. The mean of means obtained on the various research questions indicated an endorsement for positive religious coping among women living with cervical cancer. On the other hand, respondents did not reappraise God for things happening to them. Also, it was found that there is a statistically significant difference in the religious coping practices of women living with cervical cancer with respect to religious background. It is recommended that there should be an integration of positive religious coping techniques by nurses, physicians, pharmacists, clinical psychologists/counsellors and spiritual leaders into psychotherapy and counselling of women living with cervical cancer to enhance their skills in cancer management so as to ensure a holistic care of cervical cancer survivors.