Investigating the Relationship of Spiritual Wellbeing with Perceived Stress and Perceived Social Support among Women with Preeclampsia

Preeclampsia is a multifactorial disease which is the main cause of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in many countries. Spiritual wellbeing plays a vital role in coping stress and has a positive effect on improving the individuals' health. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship of spiritual wellbeing with perceived stress and perceived social support in women with preeclampsia.

This descriptive study was carried out using convenience sampling on 112 pregnant women with preeclampsia referring to selected hospitals in Shiraz within 2018. Demographic and midwifery questionnaire, spiritual wellbeing questionnaire, and stress and perceived social support questionnaire were used in the current study. In addition, Pearson correlation test, one-way ANOVA and independent t-test were used for data analysis. P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Based on the obtained results, 60.7% of women had high spiritual wellbeing score. There was a significant inverse correlation between spiritual wellbeing and perceived stress (P<0.001). In addition, there was a positive and significant correlation between spiritual wellbeing and social support (P<0.001).

With an increase in the spiritual wellbeing score, perceived stress was significantly reduced and social support score directly and significantly increased. Therefore, the positive role of spiritual wellbeing and social support in pregnancy guidelines should be considered.