The Relationship between Spiritual Health and Symptoms of COVID-19 Patients during the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has created the most health challenge in the recent years. Understanding the symptoms is important in the recognition of severity of disease and identification of its palliative factors. Spiritual health is known an important factor in reducing distress of patients, this study was designed to determine the relationship between spiritual health and symptoms of COVID-19 patients during the pandemic.

Data were collected using a cross-sectional design to select COVID-19 patients of a special hospital in Qom. Convenience sampling was carried out during the May– June 2020. Participants were asked to fill out the demographic questionnaire. The spiritual health and symptoms of patients were measured using the Paloutzain and Ellison Spiritual Health and the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scales respectively. Pearson’s correlation coefficient, t-test and ANOVA was conducted to data analysis.

The findings demonstrated that most of the participants had high-average levels of spiritual health 70.14 (2.96) and average levels of symptoms 60.79(21.07). Spiritual health were negatively correlated with lack of Well-being (r= -.131, p < .05) and Anxious symptoms (r=-.115, p < .05). Religious health was correlated with Anxious symptoms (r= -.109, p < .05) and Drowsy (r= -.114, p < .05) and lack of Well-being (r= -.115, p < .05).

This research confirmed the relationship of Spiritual health with some symptoms. Single patients and older adults had higher levels of symptoms and their management is a priority during the pandemic.