Effect of Religion-Based Spirituality Education on Happiness of Postmenopausal Women: An Interventional Study

Psychological health in postmenopausal women is important. For this reason, to enhance their sense of biological happiness, religion-based spiritual therapy has been sought as a way to create happiness. This study was conducted to determine the effect of religion-based spirituality education on the happiness of postmenopausal women.

This randomized interventional study was performed on 70 postmenopausal women in 2019. They were randomly allocated into two groups (35 control and 35 intervention). Spirituality therapy was held in six 90-minute sessions once a week, through interactive lectures, group discussion, brainstorming, memory and storytelling, and feedback. Demographic data and the Oxford happiness questionnaire were used for data collection. These questionnaires were completed by both groups before, immediately after, and one month after the intervention, with the researcher’s presence to answer the research questions. The obtained data were analyzed using the Chi-square, independent t test, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with repeated measure in SPSS 16.

The mean score of happiness in postmenopausal women was significantly higher in the intervention groups immediately (P<0.001) and one month after the intervention (P=0.04) compared to the control group. The effect size of intervention on happiness was 0.123.

Religion-based spirituality education is recommended as a practical and straightforward way to promote the happiness of postmenopausal women. However, further studies are recommended, due to insufficient evidence.