نشریه دین و سلامت
سال هفتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 12، بهار و تابستان 1398)

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common chronic motor disability and cognitive neuropathy in children. Muslim mothers of children with CP, say prayers, cling to the progeny of the prophet, and recite holy Quran in these situations. The aim of this study was to identify the experience of mothers with CP children through reciting the holy Quran.

In this qualitative study, 5 mothers of CP children who were hospitalized in Valiasr Hospital in Fasa, Iran, were selected through purposive sampling and subjected to semi-structured interviews until data saturation. Inductive data analysis were performed to analyze data. Moreover, the criteria of acceptability, verifiability, and transmissibility were used to evaluate the accuracy, validity and reliability of the data.  

According to the results, 3 main categories and 8 subcategories were emerged in this study. The theme of “Miracle of Quran's therapy” emerged form “Psycho-physical improvement of mothers and children” subcategory. In addition, the category of “Spiritual growth” was emerged from the subcategories, such as “acceptance and surrender to divine volition”, “heroic return”, and “assurance of existence of patron”. Furthermore, the last category of “comprehensive management” was extracted form subcategories, including “self-management and task-doing”, “situation management”, and “looking ahead”.

Regarding the severity of the CP disease and various difficulties in taking care of children with CP, mothers selected the strategy of reciting the holy Quran. They believed that reciting holy Quran empowered them and help them play their maternal role and manage the situation. In addition, it is recommended to provide situations in which mothers can recite holy Quran as one of the most efficient way in meeting mothers’ needs.

The meaning of life and quality of life (QOL) are important among patients with spinal cord injury. Religiosity and positive psychological structures can play a role in explaining the meaning of life and QOL. Therefore, the current canonical analysis aimed to investigate the relationships of religiosity, hope, and optimism with the meaning of life and QOL among the spinal cord injury patients.

The present study evaluated the correlations among the statistical population of spinal cord injury patients living in Rasht, Iran in 2015. In this investigation, 150 samples were selected through convenience sampling method. The participants responded to the questionnaires of hope, religiousness, optimism, the meaning of life, and QOL developed by Snyder, Khodayarifard, Schweizer and Koch, Steger, and the World Health Organization, respectively. All the data were analyzed by the Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis using SPSS software version 18.  

The findings of this study showed that hope (28%), religiosity (12%), and optimism (18%) can explain QOL and the meaning of life (P > 0.01).

According to our results, religiosity and positive psychological structures improve ability and people have better conditions in terms of the meaning of life and QOL in case of confronting difficulties, such as spinal cord injury.

The spiritual dimension is one of the health dimensions; however, its measurement faces some serious problems, owing to the lack of a clear and comprehensive definition, as well as the challenges present in its spiritual conceptualization. Therefore, the present study aimed to design and evaluate the instrumental psychometric properties, which are matched to the cultural norms of Iranian students society, so as to assess their spiritual health.

This research was carried out on 390 university students in Gonabad who were selected by stratified random sampling (based on their field of study). In order to calculate the validity of the questionnaire (SHLCS(, the factor analysis method was used by principal component analysis, and Cronbach's alpha method was used to evaluate the reliability.

The findings of the factor analysis section indicated that Varimax rotation revealed four components, including active spiritual life, faith / spiritual life, passive spirituality, and divine mercy. Moreover, it was found that the whole questionnaire and all sub-tests enjoyed a high reliability coefficient. It is worth mentioning here that there was no significant difference between the total score and the components of the spiritual health locus of control based on gender.

Based on the results of the study, the Persian version of the SHLCS has appropriate validity and reliability in students.

Spirituality can affect the patients’ perception of health, disease, and interaction with other individuals. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is more stressful in women due to their maternal role and reproductivity; therefore, coping with the disease is more difficult for women than for men.

This qualitative study tried to investigate experiences, as well as spiritual perception and its role, in the lives of women positive for HIV using conventional content analysis. Therefore, the present study was carried out on 15 women positive for HIV referring to the Behavioral Diseases Counseling Center of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, Iran. The data collection was conducted through in-depth semi-structured interviews.

In the analysis of the interviews, after being infected, two spirituality groups were categorized into three subgroups, including 1) compliance with the disease, 2) belief in divine destiny, and 3) responsible behaviors to obtain God's satisfaction. The spirituality group and disease charges group were extracted divided into two subgroups of 1) divine punishment and 2) feeling of guilt.

Regarding the role of spirituality in coping with and enduring HIV among patients, it is recommended to perform interventions on women with HIV based on spirituality and religious beliefs, as well as decrease of the disease charges in societies. It is also suggested that caregivers in risky behaviors counseling centers should be trained in the domains of spirituality and spiritual well-being. Moreover, the caregivers can use the religious beliefs of the infected patients to help them with the disease disclosure and adaptation, use of drugs, and reduction of risky behaviors, as well as the harm to the community.

Cardiovascular disease is a chronic condition which imposes an economic burden on the individual and community. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of positivist psychology education with the Islamic approach on psychological capital in cardiovascular patients.

This semi-experimental study was conducted on cardiovascular patients referring to health centers in Babol, Iran, during 2017. A total of 24 patients were selected using available sampling method and randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received positivist psychology education with Islamic approach during eight weekly sessions. Moreover, the psychological capital questionnaire (Luthans, 2007) was used to collect data.

The results of descriptive statistic and psychological capital scores indicated improvements in the status of the participants in the experimental group, compared to those in the control group. In addition, the results of t-test showed that positivist psychology education with Islamic approach significantly enhanced the mean scores of psychological capital in the experimental group, compared to those in the control group (P<0.001).

Based on the findings of this study, positivist psychology education with Islamic approach is an effective method to improve the psychological capital in cardiovascular patients. During the course of treatment, along with the routine medication, positivist psychological interventions have effects on psychological capital.

Spiritual health has great importance in human life to the extent that in recent years the World Health Organization (WHO) looked with favor on it. Holy Quran has introduced itself as a healing prescription for the human soul. Spiritual health is associated with the keyword of “Heart” in the Quran's literature, and the concepts of sick and healthy hearts have been mentioned in it. In this regard, the purpose of this article was the analysis of the healthy (Salīm) heart semantics to be considered an introduction as a new Quranic approach in the perception of spiritual health to perform comparative studies between these quranic indicators and indicators of spiritual health accepted by the WHO. With respect to what has been said, the present study looked for an answer to the following question:What are the important indicators of the Salīm heart in Holy Quran to be considered as an approach toward spiritual health?
The method of content analysis was used in this study. The data considering the aim of the study were collected by searching the keywords, including “Heart” and “Health” in Islamic sources, Jami al-Tafaseer and Jami al-Ahadith software, as well as internal and international databases, and then were analyzed. It is worth mentioning that the Salīm heart has fourteen spiritual signs, including, pious, soft, amenable, modest, beseeching, fearful, soft-hearted, unselfish, living, prayer, guided, and open heart. According to the obtained results of the present study, the heart mentioned in Quran is the same as immaterial human soul, and the healthy heart means a healthy soul. More accurate comparative studies between the common spiritual health in new medicine and spiritual health of the heart in Quran can introduce a new approach to the type of diagnosis, treatment, and care in the domain of spiritual health.

There are controversial findings about the relationship between milk intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). In this regard, the purpose of this review study was to determine the relationship between milk intake and CVD, as well as the effects of milk consumption on health based on Quranic verses, hadiths, and the data from available databases. No significant relationship was found between the consumption of high or low-fat milk and cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, the reported beneficial effects of high-fat milk on health were mentioned in Islamic books. Mechanistically, it is not completely clear how the intake of milk can increase the risk of CVD.  It has been suggested that the elevated levels of LDL cholesterol caused by high-fat milk consumption increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, the negative health effects of the elevation in LDL cholesterol levels are compensated by the increased HDL caused by milk consumption. In addition, the role of other factors has been addressed. These studies emphasize the need for further research to investigate the relationship between milk intake and the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases.  Milk is considered a treatment for the disease not a cause, according to the Holy Quran and hadith. Since the results of many investigations are similar to those mentioned in religious books, it can be argued that Islamic sources can be used as a guide to find and understand the scientific facts of a subject.

From a nursing perspective, the human being is a multidimensional entity whose spiritual dimension is central to all aspects and has a significant impact on health. Spirituality and spiritual care are an integral part of holistic care in nursing. Therefore, these factors can play an important role in patient recovery and achieving health objectives when taken into consideration.
The present study was performed to review the available literature regarding the status and role of spiritual care in nursing published during 2000-2018. We aimed to determine the importance of spiritual care education in enhancing the competencies of the nursing profession and provide the condition for further studies.
Studies have shown that the concept of spirituality and spiritual care in the health system have remained subjective, ambiguous, and complex. The findings of numerous studies have demonstrated that education has a great influence on the progress and development of spiritual care in nursing. Consequently, more attention should be paid to spiritual care education as a necessity for increasing the efficiency of nurses in a health team.
According to the results of various studies, it is suggested that the managers, health planners, and nursing educators provide a platform for promoting the professional performance of nurses by formulating the policies of spiritual care education, Spiritual care is an inseparable part of the professional life of nurses. As a result, paying attention to this aspect of care in this profession seems to be essential.