Investigating the Effect of Providing a Spiritual Care-Educational Program in the form of WhatsApp and Telephone Follow-up on the Quality of Life of Stroke Patients and Their Caregivers after Discharge

Stroke is the second cause of death and the third cause of disability in the world. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of providing a spiritual care program in the form of WhatsApp and telephone follow-up on the quality of life of stroke patients and their caregivers after discharge from the hospital.

This research was conducted on 64 stroke patients and their caregivers being discharged from Hospital in the year 1400. They were randomly divided into two groups of 32 people. The spiritual care-educational program was presented to the patients and their caregivers in the intervention group, and follow-up was done by phone. The information of the patients and their caregivers was collected using the demographic information questionnaire, the Williams stroke-specific quality of life questionnaire (SS-QOL) and the SF-36 quality of life scale in the three stages before, immediately and six weeks after the implementation. The data were analyzed by using independent t-test and variance of repeated observations with SPSS version 20 software.

The results showed that the total quality of life score of the intervention group patients after the intervention with a mean and a standard deviation of 191.09±39.23 and their caregivers with 72.87±18.19 compared to before the intervention increased significantly (P < 0.05). Also, the average scores of patients and their caregivers' quality of life in the almost of areas increased significantly after the implementation (P < 0.05).

According to the findings, this spiritual care program has a positive effect on the quality of life of stroke patients and their caregivers. Therefore, spiritual intervention through WhatsApp and telephone follow-up can be considered as a suitable tool to improve their quality of life.