Effectiveness of Spirituality Therapy on the Resiliency of the Elderly in Isfahan, Iran

Aim and In recent years, sources of stress and unfavorable environments have increased. Moreover, the world's elderly population is growing. Thus, the aim of the present study was the investigation of the effectiveness of spirituality therapy on the resiliency of elderly living in nursing homes.
Methods and Materials: This was a quasi-experimental study with pretest and posttest and control group. The study population consisted of all elderly in Sadeghieh Nursing Home, Isfahan, Iran. From among the elderly who gained a score of less than 50, 20 individuals were selected and randomly divided into experimental and control groups (n = 10). The experimental group received 8 sessions of spirituality therapy-based intervention. The Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale was completed by the participants in pretest and posttest stages. The Cronbach’s alpha of this scale in Iran was 0.87. Its reliability was obtained through test-retest (0.73). The collected data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA in SPSS software.
Findings: Group spirituality therapy caused a significant increase in mean scores and resiliency of experimental group in posttest and follow-up stages in comparison to pretest (P The results showed that spirituality therapy is a good method to increase resiliency in the elderly. Through participating in group spirituality therapy sessions and exchanging ideas and opinions, they found meaning and purpose in life and every event. Due to its relevance to the Iranian cultural and religious context, it is recommended that spirituality therapy be offered to other age groups and compared with cognitive therapy in terms of increase in resiliency.