Religious coping associated with serum cortisol and anxiety symptoms on late-stage breast cancer patients

Background: Breast cancer diagnosis is considered meaningful stressor and often accompanied by anxiety. Cortisol correlates with anxiety and can predict breast cancer progressivity. This study aimed to analyze the correlation between religious coping with serum cortisol levels and anxiety symptoms on late-stage of breast cancer patients at Dr. Soetomo Hospital, Surabaya. Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational analytic study. We used Brief RCOPE to assess patients’ religious coping, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) to measure the symptoms of anxiety, and chemiluminescence method to measure serum cortisol in the morning. Results: Among 32 subjects, the mean RCOPE positive, RCOPE negative, serum cortisol levels and BAI were 23.25, 12.375, 22.7734, and 12.5313, respectively. Significant correlations were found between negative religious coping and serum cortisol (p = 0.015; r = 0.425), also between negative religious coping and anxiety (p = 0,001; r = 0555). No correlation was found between positive religious coping and serum cortisol, nor between positive religious coping and anxiety. Conclusion: Higher negative religious coping correlates with higher serum cortisol and higher anxiety.