Canonical Analysis of the Relationships of Religiosity, Hope, and Optimism with the Meaning of Life and Quality of Life in Spinal Cord Injury Patients

The meaning of life and quality of life (QOL) are important among patients with spinal cord injury. Religiosity and positive psychological structures can play a role in explaining the meaning of life and QOL. Therefore, the current canonical analysis aimed to investigate the relationships of religiosity, hope, and optimism with the meaning of life and QOL among the spinal cord injury patients.

The present study evaluated the correlations among the statistical population of spinal cord injury patients living in Rasht, Iran in 2015. In this investigation, 150 samples were selected through convenience sampling method. The participants responded to the questionnaires of hope, religiousness, optimism, the meaning of life, and QOL developed by Snyder, Khodayarifard, Schweizer and Koch, Steger, and the World Health Organization, respectively. All the data were analyzed by the Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis using SPSS software version 18.  

The findings of this study showed that hope (28%), religiosity (12%), and optimism (18%) can explain QOL and the meaning of life (P > 0.01).

According to our results, religiosity and positive psychological structures improve ability and people have better conditions in terms of the meaning of life and QOL in case of confronting difficulties, such as spinal cord injury.