Methodology of Articles in the Field of Spiritual Health in the PubMed Database

Spiritual health in Islam is in fact the spiritual connection of man with the Creator of the universe. This section makes it possible to re-evaluate and evaluate research by identifying different areas of spiritual health and study components. The purpose of this study was to determine the methodology used in articles indexed in the field of spiritual health in the PubMed database from 2000 to 2018.

This research is a descriptive and cross-sectional survey. The research population included abstracts of articles in the field of spiritual health that were indexed in the PubMed database from the beginning of 2000 to 2018. Using stratified sampling, 350 articles were selected as a sample and the required information was recorded in the data collection form by studying these articles. Then the articles were evaluated by network analysis method.  

A total of 350 articles were reviewed, of which 54 articles were written by Iranian authors and 160 articles by American authors. Most of the articles were cross-sectional studies. 25 articles out of the total number of articles were secondary studies and 11 articles were qualitative studies. The study of the frequency distribution of articles showed that Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Azad University had the most articles among the worldchr('39')s universities.

By identifying different codes and areas in the field of spiritual health and extracting it from the Quran and hadiths, it is possible to identify different applications and functions in this area and help improve the scientific activities of researchers. Preliminary studies have shown that observational studies are at the forefront of spiritual health studies, and interventional studies are less popular among researchers despite their relevance to the medical sciences. Also, a small percentage of all studies are secondary studies.