The study aims to explore the feasibility of prayer as a complementary intervention to improve emotional, spiritual, and overall quality-of-life outcomes for adults diagnosed with cancer. It seeks to gather preliminary data that may inform future, larger-scale research.

The study runs for four weeks. During this time, participants practice prayer for 15 minutes daily and complete brief surveys at the start and once per week.

Yes. Participation is entirely voluntary, and individuals may withdraw at any time without any consequences.

All data is kept strictly confidential and stored securely for three years at the American College of Healthcare Sciences (ACHS). Only individuals associated with the project have access.

Yes. The study received full ethics clearance from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at ACHS after a thorough review process ensuring compliance with informed consent, confidentiality, and participant safety.

No. All participants continue their usual medical care. The study does not compare prayer to medicine and does not ask anyone to forego medical interventions.

Participants may use any form of prayer that aligns with their personal beliefs. The study does not require adherence to a specific faith or tradition.

Missing a day will not disqualify participation. The study encourages consistency but understands that occasional lapses may occur.

As part of the study, participants will complete a series of validated surveys at several points over the course of 4 weeks, to evaluate quality of life on a weekly basis.

Validated surveys are questionnaires that have been carefully developed and tested in previous research studies to ensure they reliably measure what they are intended to. In this study, we are using validated surveys that have been taken directly from other peer-reviewed research. This means the questions have been scientifically reviewed and shown to be effective in assessing aspects of well-being, such as emotional, physical, and spiritual health.

Because these surveys are validated and used exactly as they appeared in previous research, some may include instructions referring to different timeframes (e.g., "over the past month"). However, for the purposes of this study, participants are asked to please respond to all survey questions based on their experiences during the past week.

Previous studies have shown that prayer and spiritual interventions can improve quality of life, reduce anxiety and depression, and enhance coping in cancer patients. This pilot study seeks to explore the role of prayer as an integrative approach during cancer.

Supporting Evidence from Previous Research

Many studies have demonstrated associations between spiritual practices and improved coping, reduced anxiety, and enhanced well-being in cancer patients:

• Bahrami et al. (2010): Both individual and group prayer improved quality of life in cancer patients, with group prayer showing greater benefits.

• Nasution et al. (2021): Spiritual interventions including prayer significantly reduced anxiety and depression scores in gynecological cancer patients.

• Eilami et al. (2019): Religious psychotherapy with prayer enhanced mental well-being, lowered pain, and contributed to longer life expectancy in cancer patients.

• Olver (2012): A randomized, triple-blinded study with 999 cancer patients found that those receiving intercessory prayer demonstrated improvements in spiritual, emotional, and functional well-being.

• Jim et al. (2015): Meta-analysis of 32,000 cancer patients found positive associations between spirituality (including prayer) and physical health outcomes.

• Carvalho et al. (2014): Prayer reduced anxiety and physiological stress markers in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

• Nagy et al. (2024): Systematic review of 53 studies showed higher spiritual well-being correlated with better quality of life and coping.