مجله پژوهش در دین و سلامت
سال نهم شماره 4 (زمستان 1402)

The health of a society is one of the most important determinants of the progress of any community. Assessing the level of health in different communities is of great significance. For this reason, researchers are always striving to develop appropriate tools for measuring it. Since values and norms in any society are defined based on the perspectives and worldviews of its individuals, the tools created to measure health indicators, especially social, religious, and spiritual health, should be aligned with the do's and don'ts of that particular community.

Based on the importance of spirituality and religious teachings in improving the mental health of the elderly and taking into account research records and cultural considerations of the Iranian society which has a deep connection with religion and spirituality, this study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of contemplation of the holy chapters of the Quran on the happiness and self-care of elderly women in Tehran.

This fundamental applied study is a type of non-clinical intervention study. The statistical population of the study consisted of Muslim women aged 60-75 living in Tehran. In this experimental study, with sample size of 40, after obtaining written informed consent, the participants were randomly divided into two groups: Contemplation (Tadabbor) and the Holy Quran Reading. Oxford Happiness and Yonesi Borojeni's Self-Care questionnaires were administered to the two groups, before and immediately after the intervention. Data analysis was performed using t-tests, paired samples t-tests and repeated measures analysis. In this study, all ethical considerations were observed and the authors reported no conflict of interests.

The average self-care index was 103 (out of 145) and 110 in the Contemplation Group before and after the intervention, respectively, with a significant difference (P<0.005). In the Quran Reading Group, before and after the intervention, the values were 103 and 106, respectively (P<0.06). The average happiness index in the intervention group increased from 42.6 in the pre-intervention stage to 46.9 in the post-intervention stage, and these values in the control group changed from 43.3 in the previous stage to 46.4 in the next stage. The results of paired samples t-test before and after the intervention showed a significant increase in happiness in the Contemplation Group (P<0.003).

Participating in contemplation sessions or reading at least two pages of the Holy Quran on a daily basis, preferably the first method, increases the level of self-care and happiness in above 60 year old women.

Religion and spirituality are the most common motivations for travel. Travelers with religious traditions are attracted to pilgrimage especially because of the need for self-knowledge and inner confidence. They look for emotional reawakening, physical and mental well-being, the realization of self-knowledge, and long life and health. Religious tourism is a multifaceted phenomenon that is created with a set of motivations. One of the most important motivations is health, and since happiness and hope have always been one of the concerns of human beings, and considering everyday problems, it can be effective in maintaining health. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between happiness and hope and spiritual health among religious tourists.

The present study is descriptive survey-based and cross-sectional in terms of the time criterion seeks to describe and identify the relationship and correlation between happiness, hope, and spiritual health among religious tourists. The statistical population of the study included all the tourists (men and women) participating in the Arbaeen Walk in the years 2019-2020 being in the age range of 18-65, who, at the time of data collection, were in Shiraz. Due to the fact that there was no exact statistics related to the participants in the Arbaeen Walk, 384 people were selected based on Morgan’s table with an error rate of 5% in the statistical population of 500,000 and above. In the present study, all ethical considerations were observed and the authors reported no conflict of interests.

The findings pointed to a significant relationship between the age and the level of the spiritual health of the respondents, and there was a significant difference between the marital status and the level of spiritual health. In addition, there was a significant relationship between the participating tourists’ happiness and spiritual health and hope and their spiritual health at the 99% confidence level.

Considering the fact that the Arbaeen Walk provides the ground for increasing the level of spiritual health, it is possible to develop plans to increase the level of happiness and hope among women and men of different ages during this event.

Drug abuse is one of the most important health, psychological, and social challenges that most countries in the world face in some way and imposes many problems upon the societies. This study was conducted with the aim of structural modeling of the relationship between psychological empowerment and quality of life based on the mediating role of religious beliefs in patients with drug abuse.

The method of this research is descriptive-correlational based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this study included all drug abusers who referred to the Peace Canopy addiction treatment center, located in Rasht. The participants included 300 patients selected by available sampling method. Psychological Empowerment Scale, World Health Organization quality of Life Scale and religious orientation scale were used to collect data. Also, structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. In the present study, all ethical considerations were observed and the authors reported no conflict of interests.

The results showed that all fit indices were in the desired range. The direct effect of psychological empowerment (0.45) and inward religious belief (0.29) on quality of life was positive and the direct effect of outward religious belief on quality of life (-0.18) was negative and both were at the significant level of 0.001. The direct effect of psychological empowerment on inward religious belief (0.20) was positive and the direct effect of psychological empowerment on outward religious belief (0.17) was negative and both were significant at the level of 0.01. The indirect effect of psychological empowerment on quality of life through inward religious belief (0.05) and outward religious belief (0.03) was positive and significant at the level of 0.05. Therefore, it can be stated that inward and outward religious beliefs play a mediating role in the relationship between psychological empowerment and quality of life.

According to the results, the higher the religious belief in the patients with drug abuse, the higher their psychological empowerment and quality of life; therefore, religious beliefs as an Islamic moral variable can affect the psychological empowerment and life quality of the patients with drug abuse.

Nurses are under great mental and emotional pressure at work; therefore, the current research was conducted with the aim of investigating the role of optimism and spiritual experiences in predicting the psychological stress in nurses.

The present study was a descriptive-correlational. The statistical population included all the nurses of the Coronary and Emergency Department of Waliasr Hospital in Birjand in the first two months of 2022; 104 nurses participated in the study selected by available sampling, including all the people of the statistical population in the form of a census; they responded to the Spiritual Experience Questionnaire of Underwood and Tersey, and the optimism subscale of the Psychological Capital Questionnaire by Luthans et al. Data analysis was done using Pearson's correlation test and multiple regression on the SPSS version 24 software. In the present study, all ethical considerations were observed and the authors reported no conflict of interests.

The results showed that the calculated correlation between spiritual experiences (r=0.603) and optimism (r=0.416) with psychological stress was negative (P<0.01). And the components of spiritual experiences and optimism explained 46.8% of the variance in psychological pressure.

The results of the study show the importance of optimism and spiritual experiences in reducing the psychological stress of nurses, therefore, in order to reduce the psychological stress of nurses, it is recommended to strengthen optimism and spiritual experiences in the framework of educational workshops in hospitals and health care centers.

Identifying the factors related to teachers' life satisfaction is necessary for the education planners and authorities to improve this index. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the role of lifestyle in predicting life satisfaction of married teachers through the mediation of hope.

The method used in the current research was descriptive correlational involving the use of structural equational modeling. The research community included first and second high school teachers in Tehran in the academic year 2022-2023, and 300 qualified people were selected as the research sample using available sampling method. In order to collect data, the lifestyle questionnaires of Laali et al., Schneider et al.'s hope and Diener et al.'s life satisfaction questionnaires were used. The research model and relationships between the variables were analyzed using SPSS software version 24 and Amos Software. In the present study, all ethical considerations were observed and the authors reported no conflict of interests.

The results showed that lifestyle (P<0.01, β=0.649) has a direct and positive effect on hope. Lifestyle affects life satisfaction both directly (P<0.01, β=0.306) and indirectly through the mediation of hope (P<0.05, β=0.339). Hope has a direct positive effect on life satisfaction (P<0.01, β=0.522).

In order to increase life satisfaction in the teachers, the role of lifestyle and hope should be considered in planning by those involved in the educational system; It is also possible to deal with this problem through educational and therapeutic interventions in schools.

Fields related to health sciences have high sensitivities due to their close relationship with health and community health. On the other hand, spirituality can provide a unique capacity to develop and promote health. The spiritual education program is not only a means to understand the educational content, but it is a movement beyond reasoning and analytical methods and thinking that usually takes place during education. The purpose of this research was to compile suggested topics of spiritual health for health disciplines.

The current study is a research in education that was conducted in 2021 in five stages. First, the texts related to spiritual health in health sciences were reviewed with an emphasis on spiritual health education. In the next step, the opinions of health professionals and experts were obtained. Then an expert panel consisting of experienced professors in the fields related to spiritual health, psychology, and health was formed to review the proposed items (including predetermined goals). The suggested items resulting from the expert panel comments were given to 15 health sciences, spiritual health, and psychology experts to respond to the indicators related to content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI). In the end, the obtained results were summarized and suggested. In the present study, all ethical considerations were observed and the authors reported no conflict of interests.

This study developed the spiritual health course syllabus for health sciences majors with 24 titles, whose content validity was confirmed. The above titles were acceptable in terms of their necessity and the relationship of the selected titles with the title of spiritual health in health fields.

According to the opinion of experts in the spiritual health and health sciences field, the proposed syllabus can be used as a guide to complete and design the curriculum of the spiritual health course in health fields in medical sciences universities of Iran.

Studies have shown that the mental health status of medical students is more at risk compared to the general population. There are several factors associated with mental health status. One of the related factors seems to be the meaning of life. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the relationship between meaning of life and mental health status in students of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences.

This study is descriptive-analytical and was performed in Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences with a sample size of 343. Samples were collected by simple accessible sampling method. Data collection tools included standard questionnaire of meaning of life and short form of mental health questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 26. Descriptive and analytical statistics were also used for analysis. In the present study, all ethical considerations were observed and the authors reported no conflict of interest.

343 students participated in this study, out of whom 147 were male and 195 were female. According to the findings, the items of presence of meaning and search for meaning in life have a significant inverse relationship with anxiety, stress, depression and the total score of mental health status (P<0.01).

Considering the importance of the meaning of life in the mental health status of students, more importance should be given to psychotherapy systems based on the concept of meaning.

Burnout includes occupational hazards of employees, especially nurses, and is affected by several factors. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the role of mindfulness and spiritual experiences in predicting burnout of nurses.

The current research was descriptive-correlational. The sample population included all the nurses in Birjand, Iran, in the second six months of 2022, of whom 280 were selected through available sampling. The data collection instruments were Chadwick et al.'s mindfulness, Underwood and Tersey's spiritual experiences, and Maslach's burnout questionnaires. To analyze the data, the mean, standard deviation and Pearson correlation test were used on the SPSS version 22 software. In the present study, all ethical considerations were observed and the authors reported no conflict of interests.

The results showed that the relationship of mindfulness (r=0.569) and spiritual experiences (r=-0.615) was inverse with job burnout, and the components of mindfulness and spiritual experiences predicted 42.9% of the variance in job burnout (P<0.01).

Based on the results, by planning to increase the mindfulness and spiritual experiences of nurses, it is possible to significantly help reduce their burnout.

Supportive behavior is one of the basic branches in social psychology that affects other dimensions. This research aims to identify the components of supportive behavior in Islamic sources.

The current research involved content analysis. The study examined the concepts, principles, perspectives, beliefs, and all the mentioned elements within the framework of a text. In the first stage, the relevant concepts were collected, and in the second stage, the meanings and definitions of each of these concepts were identified through dictionaries, terminological books, and Islamic sources. The authors reported no conflict of interests in the present study.

The findings show that among the words related to supportive behavior in religious sources, there are some equivalents. Also, components such as having self-worth, not being afraid of poverty, believing in the return of actions to oneself and non-attachment on the material world can be considered for supportive behavior with a religious approach in improving life satisfaction.

The more supportive behavior a person has, the higher the degree of realization of the components in them. Therefore, you should try to decorate the mentioned components as much as possible in human society.

Neurobiologically, crying is a means of expressing sadness, which indicates the height of arousal and changes the autonomic system. In this study, with an inferential review of the concepts of crying in neuroscience, psychology and the Quran and hadith, the relationship between crying for Imam Hussein (pbuh) and its healing effect on the cognitive and emotional network of the brain was investigated.

The current research is a library-based descriptive study and for data collection, the keywords crying, physiological effects of crying, neurobiological effects of crying and psychological effects of crying were used without limiting the year of publication on Google Scholar, PubMed and Scopus databases. Also, Islamic texts relied on data collected from Hadith collections and the Quran, as well as Quranic and Hadith software and commentaries, which were analyzed through content analysis. The authors of the article reported no conflict of interest.

Following crying, the emotional and psychological system returns to balance and normality. Mental state shifts to negative value when humans are close to punishments or away from rewards. The emotional system will be disturbed if the negative mood or stress becomes chronic. Crying can be a way to discharge negative emotions and distress. It stimulates the activity of mirror neurons and enhances the interpersonal relationships and acts as a mechanism based on evolutionary principles to bring people closer to each other. Crying provides us with important information about the needs, social affiliations, and commitments of individuals. Victimized and bitter martyrdom of Imam Hussain (pbuh), his children and companions, and his family's captivity can make everybody weep.

Mourning and crying for Imam Hossein (pbuh) because of the beautiful rewards that God has promised, not only releases the negative emotions, but also induces positive feelings due to stimulation of the reward system. Thus a person that is crying for Imam Hossein (pbuh) will have healthier mind.

Spiritual health is one of the four dimensions of health, and its full acquisition leads to the dynamic progression of other dimensions of health. Spiritual health is a state of having and experiencing a sense of acceptance, connection to a higher power, and following a path towards the desired strength and integrity in one's entire existence based on the determined path. The present study aims to examine and identify the influential components of spiritual health in the well-being of adolescents to pave the way for future research.

This study was conducted using a descriptive library-based method and a systematic review of all Persian and English articles published between 2017 and 2023 related to spiritual health and adolescent health in databases such as the Scientific Information Database of Jihad University, national journals, the Iranian Institute for Research and Development in Medical Sciences, and international databases including Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science, using relevant keyword combinations. In this range, more than 190 documents were obtained. The data related to research questions regarding the relationship and impact of spiritual health on various dimensions of adolescent growth were examined. The authors of the articles did not report any conflicts of interest.

By examining the selected documents, the findings showed that a focus on the spiritual aspect prepares individuals for coping with illness and problems by enhancing their self-perception as complete human beings. It plays a significant role in improving the quality of life and social performance of adolescents.

Based on the research findings, it can be stated that religion and spirituality act as protective factors against the negative effects of life stressors on mental health. By promoting happiness, well-being, self-esteem, resilience, contentment, hope, and the development of a healthy personality, it contributes to increasing general self-efficacy, social functioning, and reducing delinquency and risky behaviors. Furthermore, it has practical implications for the education and upbringing of adolescents.

Considering the abundance of medical narrations in Islamic tradition on the one side and daily increase in their scientific and practical use in medicine on the other, the way these narrations are interpreted and implied is a crucial issue to discuss. Interpreting and understanding these medical narrations requires some standards independent from those used in the domain of jurisprudence. Among the important medical books derived from these narrations is “Derasah fi Tib al-Rasoul al-Mustafa” the author of which has used the Ijtihad Method to train medical students and treat patients. Thus, considering the real effect of this ijtihad method on patients’ lives, the purpose of this study is to investigate the validity of this method in the field of medical narrations.

The current research was conducted utilizing a descriptive-analytic method and relied upon the aforesaid book and books from the field of jurisprudence and the principles of jurisprudence to evaluate and criticize the method employed in the book discussed. The authors reported no conflict of interests.

It was found that the criticisms targeted at the methodology of Ijtihad from medical narrations used by the book involve, 1) neglecting the general standards of understanding and interpreting the narrations which entail; heavy dependence on the texts without considering the associated evidences, neglecting rebuilding broken up narrations, deficient lexical and topical investigation, speculative generalizations and specializations, extending the meaning of narrations to material issues, 2) neglecting the exclusive standards for interpretation of medical narrations including; neglecting the distinction among a real (fulfilled) case, a potential (assumed) case and particular (conditional) case.

Studying the examples from method and style of the book in interpreting medical narrations with regard to recognition and treatment of illnesses showed that the inferences made by the book are not reliable due to their inattention to primary standards and general knowledge of narrations’ jurisprudence. Thus, without ensuring the validity and accuracy of the authors’ interpretations, the method is not reliable because it exerts real effects on human lives.