Investigating the Relationship between Religious Attitude and Positivism and Life Expectancy in Patients Hospitalized in Kerman Hospitals in 2019: The Mediating Role of Psychological Hardiness and Perceived Stress: A Descriptive Study

Belief in God and hope play an important role in continuing the life of all members of society, especially the sick ones. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between religious attitude and positivism and life expectancy due to the mediating role of psychological hardiness and perceived stress in patients in hospitals in Kerman.

The research method was descriptive and structural equation modeling. The study population was all patients in Kerman hospitals in 2019-2020, out of which 250 people were selected by random multi-stage cluster sampling. The research instruments included Schneider et al.chr('39')s Life Examination Questionnaire, Golriz and Baraheni’s Religious Attitude Questionnaire, Ahvaz Psychological Hardiness Questionnaire, Cohen et al.’s Perceived Stress Scale, and Scheier and Carver’s Life-orientation Test. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Mean and standard deviation of religious attitude variables 61.99±4.38, life expectancy 27.70±3.31, psychological hardiness 34.91±3.49, perceived stress 37.01±3.30 and positivism was 29.25±3.35. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between research variables and the model had a good fit with the data and all coefficients were significant so that psychological toughness and perceived stress had a significant mediating role among religious attitudes, positivism and life expectancy (p<0.001).

Positivism and religious attitude can predict life expectancy positively and meaningfully, both directly and through the medium of life expectancy. It seems that paying attention to the presented model will be useful in the treatment program and counseling of patients.