Healing Beyond Medicine: A Systematic Review on the Impact of Forgiveness on Quality of Life in Chronic Illness Patients

Description

Mohamed Roshan Najeeb and Dhanalakshmi Devineni (Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry)

Currently, forgiveness is coming up as an important psychological variable that improves well-being, interpersonal relationships and emotional resilience of individuals. In chronic illness patients, there is a chance for forgiveness to enhance quality of life and decrease psychological distress. But the methodological evidence remains scattered. So, analysing the current studies to explore the relationship between forgiveness and quality of life in chronic illness patients was the aim of this systematic review. By following the PRISMA guidelines, a systematic search of the studies across the databases PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus and ProQuest was done. Peer-reviewed quantitative studies which investigated the relationship linking forgiveness and QOL in chronic illness population were included as eligible studies. The data were extracted on key findings, tools, sample characteristics, study design and Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklist was used to assess the study quality. After the analysis, a total of 11 fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Forgiveness was consistently associated with psychological quality of life in various chronic illness patients, which includes cancer, HIV, diabetes, and renal disease. The results of this review indicate forgiveness as a possible helping factor against emotional distress, with effect sizes ranging from small to moderate (r values .14 to .46). Usage of convenience samples, cross-sectional designs, and differences in tools to measure forgiveness were highlighted as the methodological drawbacks of the reviewed studies. Also, many studies constituted forgiveness only as a dimension under spirituality, which can possibly hide the actual psychological processes of forgiveness. Forgiveness plays a crucial role in enhancing psychological quality of life in chronic illness patients despite lack of evidence for its effectiveness of physical health. The results point to the potential benefits of forgiveness as an independent intervention for enhancing the psychological conditions of chronic illness patients.