Spiritual attitude of family caregivers in elder with stroke

Stroke is a chronic condition  that  necessitates  multidimentional  and  comprehensive care. The caregivers  of  stroke  patients  are  faced  with  various  stressors  that  can  threaten  different aspects  of their  health , especially  their  mental  health. Knowledge of  the  spiritual attitude  of  family  caregivers  of  elder  with  stroke  can  provide effective  strategies in this regard. Given  the importance  of  the  subject  and  the  lack  of  study  in this  topic, the  researchers decided  to conduct a  study  to  determine  spiritual  attitude  of  family  caregivers  in elder  with  stroke.

This  descriptive cross-sectional  study  was  conducted on 407 family  caregivers  of elder patients  with  stroke, referred to the health care  centers  and nursing service companies of  eastern  of  Gilan province  in Iran in 2016. The participants  were selected  through  convenience  sampling. Data  were  collected  using  the demographic  questionnaires  and spiritual attitude scale and  were then analyzed in SSPS 18 through descriptive and analytical statistics at significant level of p=0.05.

The results  showed that 88.9% of the  caregivers  were female. The  mean  age  of  the  participants was  38.8±8.8  years. Totally, 45.7% of persons  were  unmarried, 65.6% were  housewives, 96.6%  were under diploma and  diploma and 67.3%  of family  caregivers  lived  in  private homes. The  mean  caregiving duration  was  4.2±2.5 years. The findings indicated that the  mean score  of  spiritual  attitude  was  108.77±6.20. Moreover, 22.9, 49.3 and 27.8% of participants had low or unfavorable, moderate or relatively desirable and high or favorable spiritual  attitude, respectively.

The results suggested that the spiritual attitude  was  moderate  and  relatively  favorable in  majority  of  family caregivers. Providing  strategies  for  improving  spirituality  as  important  factor  in family  caregivers  adapting  can improve  elder  caring  and  caregivers’  health.