Relationship between Spiritual Health and Demographic Characteristics among Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Spiritual health is a personality dimension that significantly impacts various aspects of people's lives. This characteristic has a two-way relationship with demographic factors such as gender, age, and occupation. Due to their unique circumstances, older adults are more susceptible to the effects of this personality dimension compared to other age groups. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the relationship between spiritual health and demographic characteristics among older adults during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The current study is a cross-sectional, descriptive, analytical study conducted on 323 older individuals who sought services at comprehensive health centers under Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. Data was collected using two questionnaires—one that focused on demographic characteristics and another that used the standard spiritual health questionnaire of Polotzin.

66.9% of older men and 54.9% of older women participating in the study were over 60 years old, and the average score of spiritual health in the present study was 86.38±0.474, which indicates the average level of spiritual health of the participants. The demographic characteristics of occupation and literacy level have a significant effect on the spiritual health of older adults (P<0.05).

Spiritual health is one of the most important dimensions of health, which can be increased by considering the factors affecting it. By increasing spiritual health, it is possible to reduce anxiety and increase the quality of life, and this will also affect the health of older adults. In order to maintain their health, older adults need a feeling of peace, and one of the important factors to achieve it is to focus on increasing spiritual health.