Objective:To examine the effect of social support on benefit finding in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer and the mediating role of spirituality in this relationship, providing insights for promoting psychological well-being in gastrointestinal cancer patients.Methods:A convenience sampling method was used to select 300 inpatients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer admitted to the Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, from February 2022 to December 2023. Patients were surveyed using the General Information Questionnaire, Benefit Finding Scale (BFS), Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), and Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List (SAIL). Pearson correlation analysis was used to assess correlations between social support, spirituality, and benefit finding. Mediation analysis was conducted using model 4 in the PROCESS macro in SPSS 24.0.Results:A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed, with 295 valid responses (effective response rate of 98.33%). The mean scores for BFS, PSSS, and SAIL among 295 patients were (72.62±6.30), (62.31±10.41), and (100.17±17.34), respectively. Both social support and spirituality were positively correlated with benefit finding ( r=0.540 and 0.529, P<0.05), and social support was positively correlated with spirituality ( r=0.611, P<0.05). Social support positively predicted benefit finding directly, and the mediating effect of spirituality between social support and benefit finding was 0.194, accounting for 35.79% of the total effect. Conclusions:Providing strong social support while fostering patients' spirituality can significantly enhance their benefit finding.

Objective:To examine the effect of social support on benefit finding in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer and the mediating role of spirituality in this relationship, providing insights for promoting psychological well-being in gastrointestinal cancer patients.Methods:A convenience sampling method was used to select 300 inpatients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer admitted to the Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, from February 2022 to December 2023. Patients were surveyed using the General Information Questionnaire, Benefit Finding Scale (BFS), Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), and Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List (SAIL). Pearson correlation analysis was used to assess correlations between social support, spirituality, and benefit finding. Mediation analysis was conducted using model 4 in the PROCESS macro in SPSS 24.0.Results:A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed, with 295 valid responses (effective response rate of 98.33%). The mean scores for BFS, PSSS, and SAIL among 295 patients were (72.62±6.30), (62.31±10.41), and (100.17±17.34), respectively. Both social support and spirituality were positively correlated with benefit finding ( r=0.540 and 0.529, P<0.05), and social support was positively correlated with spirituality ( r=0.611, P<0.05). Social support positively predicted benefit finding directly, and the mediating effect of spirituality between social support and benefit finding was 0.194, accounting for 35.79% of the total effect. Conclusions:Providing strong social support while fostering patients' spirituality can significantly enhance their benefit finding.