Correlation between Spiritual Wellbeing and Religious Orientation among Staffs in one of the Military Medical Universities

Although several studies were conducted in the spiritual well-being and religious orientation, the relationship between these two factors were not considered. This research investigated the relationship between religious orientation and spiritual health among staffs of a military university. The cross-sectional study was conducted during 2011-2012 on the staff (n 503) of a military academy that were selected through stratified sampling. Ellison and Paloutzian''s spiritual well-being scale (SWBS) and Azarbayejani’s religious orientation questionnaire were used to data collection. Data were analyzed by using SPSS ver 16. software and Pearson correlation test. 61.4% of the participants had a good score of spiritual health and 74.2% had a good religious orientation. The Pearson Correlation test showed a significant correlation between religious orientation and spiritual health (r= 0.29, P=0.05). Spiritual health can be improved through strengthening religion orientation. Therefore, it is recommended staff be provided with in-service religious education in order to maintain and promote their health and well being.