The Impact of Spiritual Care Skills on Quality of Life in Spouses of Veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The wives of veterans are under great pressure because of their husbands’ physical and mental problems, and this can affect their mental health and quality of life. It seems that the training of some skills can have a significant impact on improving quality of life and reducing their mental burden. This study was conducted to determine the effect of spiritual care education in quality of life in wives of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that plays a major role in caring for them.

This study was a quasi-experimental study in which 60 wives of PTSD-affected veterans in Ibn-e-Sina hospital were selected and assigned randomly in two experimental and control groups. Spiritual care education was conducted in five sessions of two hours. Quality of life Questionnaire (SF-36) was used in this study. The questionnaire was implemented on participants of both groups in three stages: before, after and one months after the intervention (follow-up). Data were analysis using SPSS version 19.

The results of this study showed that spiritual care education could increase quality of life in the Wives of Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the subjects participating in the post-test had significantly higher quality of life.

According to results of this, study that represent effect of spiritual care education on quality of life, so it is recommended spiritual care education can be used to improve the quality of life of people especially the families of veterans.