Health, Spirituality and Medical Ethics
Volume:10 Issue: 1, Mar 2023

The purpose of this study is to investigating the psychometric properties of the Iranian-Islamic spiritual well-being questionnaire, which envolves 22 adopted with Iranian cultural context.

The present study was descriptive-analytical. After designing the questions according to the Iranian-Islamic culture based on the literature review, the content validity was examined with the participation of experts (5 people with PH.D in psychology) and the CVI and CVR indices were used to check the quantitative content validity. To check the face validity, 10 people with the age range of 18 to 60 years were used as a sample. Also, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was used to check construct validity and Cronbach's alpha coefficient, test-retest coefficient, Spearman-Brown coefficient and Guttman split-half coefficient were used to check reliability. In the phase of examining the construct validity and reliability of the questionnaire, 400 adults aged 18 to 60 years were selected as a sample from Mashhad city in 2021 by available sampling method, and a test was conducted from them.

The CVR was obtained for 5 experts more than 0.99 and also CVI for 22 terms of the questionnaire was obtained from 0.79 and above, which is in the desired range. The exploratory factor analysis identified six factors, and these six factors together explained 77.25% of the total variance. The results obtained from the confirmatory factor analysis supported the proposed model. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of Iranian-Islamic spiritual well-being questionnaire and its factors was obtained from 0.77 to 0.91. In the split-half method, Spearman-Brown and Guttman correlation coefficients were 0.88 and 0.87, respectively. The test-retest reliability coefficients of the total score of the questionnaire and subscales were between 0.78 and 0.83.

Finally, based on the findings of this research, it can be concluded that the Iranian-Islamic spiritual well-being questionnaire has favorable psychometric properties.

Paying attention to religious beliefs is not a new approach but it is something that has attracted the attention of various scientists for many years, both in order to analyze the reasons for turning to religion and in the direction and manner of its impact on behavior. The more people pay attention to strengthening their beliefs, religious beliefs, and religious behaviors, the better they can protect themselves from psychological harm. Therefore, this study aims to explain the religious strategies of parents of infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit.

This qualitative study was conducted in 2020. The statistical population included parents and nurses. The research sample was selected by purposeful sampling which included 16 mothers, 6 fathers, and 6 nurses. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was performed by conventional qualitative content analysis.

Data analysis was obtained in three categories: search for hope and trust in God (2 categories), Neglect of the health team to the spiritual needs of parents (2 categories), spirituality and coping with illness (2 categories).

The findings of this research can be useful at both theoretical and practical levels. The present study helps to improve health care team knowledge about parents' religious strategies in NICU. Educational interventions should be done to familiarize nurses with the correct communication with parents' religious beliefs

Spirituality and spiritual beliefs are among the factors playing key roles in preventing psychological disorders. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between depression symptoms with emotional divorce and spiritual beliefs using artificial neural networks (ANN) in married university students.

The statistical population of this study included all married students at the Islamic Azad University of Ahvaz (Khuzestan Province, Iran) during the 2021–22 academic year. The convenience sampling technique was adopted to select 301 married students as the research sample. An ANN was employed in this descriptive-correlational study. Data collection was done using Beck's Depression Inventory, Emotional Divorce Scale, and Religious Orientation Scale. Moreover, data analysis was performed through the Pearson correlation coefficient, stepwise regression, and an ANN.

The results showed a significant positive relationship between emotional divorce and depression symptoms, whereas there was a significant negative relationship between intrinsic religious beliefs and depression symptoms (P<0.001). However, a significant positive relationship existed between extrinsic religious beliefs and depression symptoms (P<0.001). Furthermore, depression symptoms had multiple relationships with emotional divorce and intrinsic/extrinsic religious beliefs in married university students. The results of the ANN also showed that emotional divorce had the highest relationship with the depression symptoms of married students.

The ANN appropriately predicted depression symptoms through an emotional divorce and spiritual beliefs among married university students. The results indicated the necessity of paying more attention to marital relationships, emotional divorce improvement, and depression alleviation.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease. Cancer patients often experience severe stress. Improving or reducing the stress caused by cancer in patients is also possible with different psychological approaches. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to compare the effectiveness of spiritual therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy on life expectancy and quality of life of cancer patients.

In this quasi-experimental study involving pre-test and post-test and follow-up by a control group conducted in 2020, we randomly selected 45 cancer patients admitted to Taleghani Hospital in Kermanshah province, which were divided into three groups: spiritual therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy and control group. After the treatment, we compared them in three groups by SPSS v20 statistical software and covariance test using Quality of Life Questionnaire, Life Expectancy Questionnaire by Schneider.

The mean age of 45 selected patients was 28±14 years (14 females of 18-49 and 31 males of 22-45). 75% of patients were single and 25% were married. A family history of cancer was observed in 14% of patients. There were no significant differences in pre-test (17.04 ±2.35) and post-test (18.19 ± 2.11) scores related to life expectancy in patients in the control group. The results of analysis of covariance showed a significant difference (at the level of p <0.01) between post-test scores in the two experimental groups compared to the control group in terms of quality of life and life expectancy.

Both types of treatments were effective on patients and increased their quality of life and life expectancy. But spiritual therapy had a greater effect on quality of life and life expectancy among cancer patients compared to acceptance and commitment therapy. Therefore, by performing timely spiritual therapy interventions, we can help increase the quality of life and life expectancy of these patients.

The goal of this study was to see whether there is a link between this crucial characteristic and health literacy among female teenagers, especially in terms of their attitudes toward breast self-examination.

study was a cross sectional survey. Using multi-stage cluster sampling, 600 female students in grades 10 and 11 were chosen. A standard health literacy questionnaire created by Montazeri et al.  and a 20-item spiritual health questionnaire created by Paloutzian and Ellison was used. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.

The majority of respondents had moderate health literacy and spiritual health, with a positive and significant correlation (r = 0.32).  Health literacy has also been linked to maternal education and lower social class affiliation. Spiritual health was shown to be the most important variable in explaining health literacy in the regression.

The research findings show the importance of spiritual health in health literacy and attitude towards health and preventive behaviors. Policymakers should give much more importance to spiritual health, especially in existential  and non-ritual religious form, in designing preventive interventions.

Nurses often face many challenges in life which negatively affect their well-being. The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of self-transcendence in the relationship between psychological vulnerability with work-related wellbeing nurses in Birjand.

The present study was a descriptive correlation with the structural equation modeling approach. The statistical population included all public hospital nurses in Birjand in 1399 (N=795). The research sample included 440 that was done by available method. Data collection tools included Psychological Vulnerability scale, the subscale Self-transcendence and Character Questionnaire and  workrelated Well-being scale.The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling and SPSS22 and LISREL 8.8 software.

The results showed that the direct path of psychological vulnerability to spiritual acceptance,  creative self forgetfulness and transpersonal identification was negative and significant (p<0.01). The direct path of self forgetfulness, transpersonal identification and spiritual acceptance to work-related wellbeing was positive and significant(p<0.01), also the indirect path psychological vulnerability to work-related wellbeing through spiritual acceptance, self forgetfulness and transpersonal  identification was significant (p<0.01). 

The findings of the study indicate that self-transcendence can play a significant indirect role in reducing the negative effects of psychological vulnerability on the work-related well-being of nurses. Therefore, by using the self-care training program based on the theory of self-transcendence, it is possible to improve the three dimensions of self-transcendence of nurses and increase their work well-being and reduce their psychological vulnerability.

Ethical sensitivity prevents moral dilemmas; moral self-concept develops via adaptation to others’ expectations. Nursing education provides an opportunity to internalize ethical sensitivity and improve moral self-concept so sensitivity and moral self-concept in nursing students and related factors assessed.

In a quasi-experimental study,all senior nursing students were selected. The inclusion criteria included senior Bachelor's degree students, desire to participate. Lutzen's ethical sensitivity questionnaire, Lutzen's moral self-concept were used.Data analyzed by SPSS software, descriptive statistical tests(percentage, mean ± SD), Paired t-test and Analysis of Variance.

The results showed the majority of the participants(74.4%)were women,(76.9%) single,(48.7%)23 years old, and(76.9%) participated in the ethics workshops.The mean score of students' ethical sensitivity before the internship was at an average level (61.5%) and after that was improved to a higher level(76.4%). There is a significant difference between the mean score of ethical sensitivity before and after the internship. While this difference was not significant for the mean score of moral self-concept. The difference between study concepts with gender and marital status and age weren’t significant, while with workshop participation was significant(p<0.02).

Ethical sensitivity is influenced by participating in ethics workshops so continuous training can be effective to improve it.