Do religion and spirituality influence coping in end-stage emphysema patients?

COPD is a chronic and progressive disease associated with poor quality of life and an increased risk of psychological distress.1 While the physical and psychosocial impact of end-stage lung disease has been evaluated, few studies have explored the influence of religious and spiritual coping on these domains, or how they affect outcomes. Most of the research on end-stage lung disease and religious and spiritual coping has been conducted with patients awaiting lung transplantation, and included patients with cystic fibrosis as well as COPD. The cystic fibrosis population was found to be distinct from the COPD population on a variety of measures, including coping styles.2 However, patients with COPD in those studies may have had a similar illness severity to the subjects included in the research by Green et al in this issue of RESPIRATORY CARE,3 as the mean percent-of-predicted FEV1 in the study by Green et al was 25%.