The Elders’ Spiritual Well-Being and Their Quality of Life: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Because of the rising number of elderly people, their Quality of Life have become more important. Health status has been considered as one of the factors that affect life quality and Spiritual Well-Being is one of its important dimensions. The present study aimed to determine the relationship between Spiritual Well-Being and Quality of Life among the elderly people residing in Arak City, Iran. Methods: This is a cross-sectional and correlational study. The study sample comprised 400 elderly people residing in Arak, Iran who were selected by cluster sampling method. Spiritual Well- Being was measured using Spiritual Well-Being scale (SWB) and the Quality of Life was assessed by Older People’s Quality of Life Questionnaire (OPQOL-35). The obtained data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, along with Pearson correlation test, t-test, and ANOVA in SPSS V. 16. Results: The Mean±SD score of life quality among the elderlies was 76.24±17.84 and was associated with their marital status and education level (P=0.001). The Spiritual Well-Being score of most elderly people ranged from moderate to high and the Mean±SD score of their Spiritual Well-Being was 96.47±13.43. There was a significant relationship between Spiritual Well-Being and the Quality of Life (r=0.37, P=0.0001). Conclusion: According to the findings, more attention should be paid to the factors related to the Quality of Life for taking care of the elderly people. Considering the relationship between Spiritual Well-Being and Quality of Life among these elderlies, provision of spiritual care for this group of society is recommended. Highlights ● Married elderly people reported a higher quality of life than others. ● Spiritual performance is not related to loss in physical ability. ● All dimensions of quality of life among Iranian elderly men were significantly higher than those in older Iranian women. ● There is a correlation between spiritual well-being and quality of life. Plain Language Summary The number of elderly people is increasing all over the world and it is important to know about their quality of life. One of the important areas affecting on quality of life is spiritual health state that we aimed to clarify their relationship. A group of elderly people living in one of the Iranian cities, Arak, were asked to fill the questionnaire related to their health state. After analyzing the gathered data, we realized the strong relationship between spiritual well-being and how these people find life enjoyable and being satisfied.