Table 1. Psychological factors and immune-hematological parameters assessed in the Healing Study.

Psychological factors

Immune-hematological parameters

Based on the patient’s answers to the HEALING “before” questionnaire: • Patient’s personal belief on how she/he got sick (BI1 and BI2) • Patient’s desire for the visit (BII1, BII4) • Patient’s satisfaction with her/his life (BI3, BI4, BI5, BI6) • Patient’s self-assessed burden caused by the hospitalization (BI7, BIV) • Patient’s personal belief on the way she/he will be healing (BII2, BII3) • Patient’s personal faith (BII1) • Patient’s religious practice (BIII2) Perceived stress scale 14 items (PSS-14) Based on the patient’s or the chaplain’s answers to the HEALING “after” questionnaire: • Patient’s/Chaplain’s overall satisfaction with the visit (AI and PI respectively) • Patient’s assessment on the intimacy of the encounter (AII) • Chaplain’s assessment on the patient’s openness (PII) • Patient’s assessment on the sincerity of the encounter (AIII) • Chaplain’s assessment on the extent she could connect to the patient (PIII) • Patient’s assessment on the trustworthiness of the chaplain (AIV) • Patient’s/Chaplain’s assessment on the emotionally turbulent, roiling effect of the encounter (AV, PIV) • Patient’s/Chaplain’s assessment on the emotional depth of the encounter (AVI, PV) (abbreviations refer to the question number in the corresponding Healing questionnaire)

• White blood cell count (WBC) • Neutrophils: change in ✓ neutrophil count (dNeut) ✓ percentage of neutrophils (dNeut%) • Eosinophils: change in ✓ eosinophil count (dEo) ✓ percentage of eosinophils (dEo%) • Basophils: change in ✓ basophil count (dBas) ✓ percentage of basophils (dBas%) • Monocytes: change in ✓ monocyte count (dMono) ✓ percentage of monocytes (dMono%) • Lymphocytes: change in ✓ lymphocyte count (dLy-abs) ✓ percentage of lymphocytes (dLy%) ✓ percentage of large granulated lymphocytes (dLGL%) ✓ percentage of small condensed lymphocytes (dSmallLy%) ✓ percentage of activated lymphocytes (dMiddleLy%) • Lymphocyte/neutrophil ratio  –change in: (dLy/Neut) • Platelet count (Plt) • Interferon-gamma level (IFNγ) • Immunoglobulin M level (IgM) • Immunoglobulin A level (IgA) • Immunoglobulin G level (IgG) • Complement C3 level (C3) • Partial thromboplastin time (PTT) • International normalized ratio (INR)