The Effectiveness of Spiritual Group Therapy on Quality of Life and Life Satisfaction among HIV-Positive Patients

Background: HIV Positive or AIDS is a complex disease that weakens the immune system and causes infection. Moreover, since in most societies it is known as a social taboo, all aspects of a patient’s life being particularly affected with HIV. Also, AIDS is not only a health issue but also a social problem as well. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of spiritual treatment on quality of life and life satisfaction in patients with AIDS. Methods: This semi-experimental study performed by using the pretest - posttest, and control group. 30 AIDS patients who were referred to the DIC center in Kerman were selected with sampling methods and were assigned randomly to experimental and control groups. After completing the test, the experimental group received 12 sessions of group spiritual therapy. Measuring instruments include quality of life questionnaire (SF-36) and the Life Satisfaction Scale. Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance with SPSS software. Results: The results showed that the mean scores of the experimental group scores on quality of life and life satisfaction had a significant increase compared to the previous studies and control group. Conclusion: Based on these results, we can infer that the spiritual sense is effective on the quality of life and life satisfaction in patients with AIDS. Also, spiritual group therapy can be used as a useful method of intervention to enhance the quality of life and life satisfaction of patients with AIDS.