Spiritual Well-being of the Elderly Residing in Zahedan City (South-East of Iran)

Aim: Spiritual well-being is one of the most important aspects of health that provides the integration and coordination of all aspects. However, due to the increasing number of the elderly, it is important to pay more attention to their health. This study was conducted to determine the spiritual well-being of the elderly residents of Zahedan in 2016.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 117 elderly people residing in Zahedan. They were selected through population-based cluster random sampling to participate in the study. In order to measure spiritual well-being and evaluate its relationship with demographic variables we made use of Paloutzian and Ellison’s spiritual well-being questionnaire. Moreover, we used descriptive statistics for determining frequency, mean, and standard deviation, as well as t- test, and ANOVA in order to analyze the data.
Findings: The results showed that spiritual health of the majority of the participants was from moderate to high level, and the mean score of their spiritual well-being was (88.98±7.35). The results indicated that the participants’ spiritual health is not related to any of the demographic variables.
The protection coming from religious or spiritual resources and having a relationship with a higher power can be useful for improving the quality of life and health promotion. Since the elderly people are considered as a vulnerable group in the society, the need for educational planning and counseling services in this field is crucial.