The Effect of Spiritual Care on Perceived Stress and Mental Health Among the Elderlies Living in Nursing Home

AbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate the effect of spiritual care on the perceived stress and mental health of the elderlies living in nursing home in Isfahan. This is a semi-experimental study with pretest and posttest design with control group. Ninety eligible elderlies living in the nursing home were divided into intervention and control groups through census and random allocation. The interventional spiritual care was conducted for the intervention group for 90  days. After conducting the spiritual care, the majority of the elderlies (62.22%) in the intervention group had a low perceived stress level and the majority of the subjects (64.44%) in the control group had a high perceived stress level. Therefore, after performing spiritual care, a significant d ifference was observed at the perceived stress level of the two groups (X2 = 3.22 andP = 0.001). The results of mental health level indicated that the mean score of the general health questionnaire was ranged between 10.95 and 27.2. After performing care, a significant difference was observed in mental health level of both groups, and 31.11% and 53.33% of the participants were su spected to general disorder in the intervention and control groups, respectively. Based on the results, there was a significant difference in the mental health level of both groups after the implementation of spiritual care (X2 = 6.56 andP = 0.001). Further, a significant negative correlation was found between the pe...
Source: Journal of Religion and Health - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research