Spiritual well-being of patients with multiple sclerosis

BACKGROUND: Spiritual well-being is one of the fundamental concepts in chronic diseases which creates meaning and purpose in life and is an important approach in promoting general health and quality of life. This study was performed to determine the level of spiritual health and its dimensions in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). METHODS: 236 members of Iranian MS Society volunteered to participate in a descriptive co-relational study. Spiritual well-being was evaluated by The Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) questionnaires in two religious and existential dimensions. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The majority of patients (% 97.9) showed moderate spiritual well-being (mean score = 74.3, SD = 8.90). However, existential well-being (mean score = 40.3, SD= 5.51) was higher than religious well-being (mean score = 33.9, SD = 4.88). A significant relationship was seen between economic status and the spiritual well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The results emphasize on the necessity of spiritual well-being as an effective factor on different aspects of these patients life. This key point is useful and even necessary to be considered to design programs of care and cure for these patients in a country like Iran with cultural and religious beliefs. On the other hand, patients economic status should be considered.