Relationship between spiritual well-being and cortisol level in nursing students

High level of cortisol that is concentrated due to stress expose had negative effects on health. Spiritual well-being cause positive fall and can decreases cortisol level. This study aimed to determine relationship between spiritual well-being score and cortisol level in nursing students. This was a descriptive analytical cross-sectional study that was carried out on 100 nursing students in Rasht Islamic Azad University who were training at internship in 2013. Simple random sampling based on students’ identification number was performed. We used standard spiritual well-being (SWB). Serum cortisol level was obtained at morning between 10 and 12. For statistical analysis we used independent t-test and Pearson’s coefficient of correlation. Mean of spiritual well-being and its religious and existential well-being scale were 97.8±13.4, 48.6±7.1, and 49.2±7.2, respectively. Most of students (51%) were in high level of Spiritual well-being and rests (49%) were in moderate level. Mean of plasma cortisol level was 14.08±5.08. There was no significant correlation between spiritual well-being and its subscales with serum cortisol level. Among 20 questions in Spiritual well-being scale there were significant negative correlations between cortisol level and “I believe that God is concerned about my problems” (r=-0.211, P=0.035) and “I don’t enjoy much about life” (r=-0.202, P=0.044). There was no relationship between serum cortisol level in morning and spiritual well-being scale and its subscales. However, the belief that God is a helper in problems and enjoy about life have relations with low level of serum cortisol.