Spiritual Well-being in Caregivers of Stroke Patients and its Effective Factors

The stroke patients’ problems can lead to caregiver’s challenges. Therefore, it is important to identify caregiver’s spiritual well-being as a moderating factor in adapting to these challenges. The aim of this study was to determine the spiritual well-being of caregivers of stroke patients and to identify the factors affecting it. This was a cross-sectional study. One hundred and twenty two stroke patient caregivers were selected through convenience sampling. The Palutzian & Ellison Spiritual Well-being scale was used. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using t-test, ANOVA and Linear Regression analysis.   The mean score of spiritual well-being was 85.29 (SD=13.89). The spiritual well-being of caregivers was in moderate level, and the results showed the link between caregivers’ spiritual well-being and the patients’ age and education level. Caregivers’ spiritual well-being was associated with the patients’ ability to do personal activities and the way patient walked. In the case of those patients who were not able to do their personal activities, and who could not walk at all, their caregivers had higher mean score of spiritual well-being. The results of Linear Regression analysis showed an association between spiritual well-being and the patient’s walking ability (b=0.27, t=3.22, p=0.002) and their education level (b=-0.22, t=-2.59, p=0.01). The findings showed that the caregivers’ spiritual well-being was in moderate level. In addition, levels of education, age, the patient walking ability, and the ability to do personal activities were the factors associated with caregiver’s spiritual well-being. The patient's inability to walk and to perform personal activities were the factors that were associated to the caregiver spiritual well-being. Therefore, caregivers should try to increase their spiritual well-being when their patients are unable to move and have paralysis.