Nursing and Health Vol. 10(1), pp. 1 - 5
DOI: 10.13189/nh.2025.100101
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Family Support and Meaning of Life among Palliative Patients

Usep Somantri ¹, Susanti Niman ^2,*, Henri Suntoro ¹, Stephanus Prihasto ¹, Tina Shinta Parulian ¹, Timothy Rothhaar ^3
1 Faculty of Health Sciences, Universitas Santo Borromeus, Padalarang, Indonesia
² Faculty of Nursing, Institut Kesehatan Immanuel, Indonesia
³ Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, Marquette University, United States

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Palliative patients who receive palliative care are only 14% of over 40 million around the world. Palliative patients who find meaning in their lives also find purpose despite their illness. Family support is one of the factors that help palliative patients find meaning in life. It can be in the form of emotional support, instrumental support, informational support, appraisal and appreciation from others. The past and present life experiences such as, the disease suffered, can also influence the meaning of life. This study aims to study the relationship between family support and the meaning of life in palliative patients. This study adopted a quantitative-correlational method with data collection techniques using purposive sampling. The number of respondents was 107 people. The questionnaire used the Family Support scale and the Meaningfulness of Life questionnaire. Data analysis utilized Kendall's Tau and Kruskal Wallis tests. Results: Family support obtained an average of 100.63 with a standard deviation of 14.150. Meaningfulness of life obtained an average of 76.96 and a standard deviation of 14.540. The result is that there is a correlation between family support and meaningfulness of life, with a p-value of 0.012. When viewed from the coefficient correlation (r) value = 0.173, there is a correlation between family support and meaningfulness of life in palliative patients. The level of family support between different types of caregivers had a p-value of 0.0005. Husbands had the highest mean family support scores. Conclusion: Families should pay more attention and provide support during treatment, and palliative patients should be more active in activities to foster a sense of meaning in life.

KEYWORDS
Family Support, Meaning of Life, Palliative Patients

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Usep Somantri , Susanti Niman , Henri Suntoro , Stephanus Prihasto , Tina Shinta Parulian , Timothy Rothhaar , "Family Support and Meaning of Life among Palliative Patients," Nursing and Health, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 1 - 5, 2025. DOI: 10.13189/nh.2025.100101.

(b). APA Format:
Usep Somantri , Susanti Niman , Henri Suntoro , Stephanus Prihasto , Tina Shinta Parulian , Timothy Rothhaar (2025). Family Support and Meaning of Life among Palliative Patients. Nursing and Health, 10(1), 1 - 5. DOI: 10.13189/nh.2025.100101.