Relation between spiritual health and religious orientation with death obsession in elderly: Mediation of ambiguity tolerance ability

In all societies, especially the Iranian society, elderly people are from specific groups and need attention. Among the variables that are important in the elderly group is their obsessive thinking about death. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between spiritual health and religious orientation with obsessive-compulsive disorder in the elderly by mediating the power of tolerance of ambiguity. This is a descriptive-correlational study. The population of this study included elderly people in Zanjan in 1396; Of these, 250 of them were selected using available sampling method. Following ethics and secrecy were completed at first a brief mental status questionnaire and then Palutzian-Elison’s spiritual health, the ambiguity tolerance ability of McLean, Abdul-Khaleq’s death obsession and the religious orientation of Allport. Then, descriptive and inferential statistics-multiple regression-findings were analyzed. The results showed that death obsession with religious health had a negative relationship (-0.41) with a negative religious (-0.28) and religious orientation (0.15) internal religious orientation. Spiritual health and external religious orientation in the prediction of obsessive-compulsive disorder had an exploratory role. Finally, the mediating role of the power of tolerance of ambiguity was confirmed. The results of this study can be effective in understanding the age and the challenges of this group and help directly in elderly counseling.