Relationship Between Spiritual Intelligence and Illness-related Worries in Hospitalized Patients With Heart Failure in Mazandaran, Iran

Heart failure is one of the important cardiovascular diseases, affecting 1% of people in their 50s and 10% of people in their 80s. People with heart failure, in addition to physical pain, often experience stress, anxiety, depression, and poor quality of life (QoL). Considering the importance of illness-related worries and spiritual intelligence (SI) in these people, this study aims to determine the relationship between SI and illness-related worries in people with heart failure in Mazandaran, Iran.

This is a descriptive-correlational study. Participants were 247 patients with heart failure admitted to Fatemeh Al-Zahra Hospital affiliated to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. To measure the variables, a demographic form, the spiritual intelligence scale of King & Decicco (2009), and the illness-related worries questionnaire. Descriptive statistics (No.[%], Mean±SD) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation test, independent t-test) were used to analyze the data in SPSS software, version 16. Significance level was set at 0.05.

The mean total scores of SI and illness-related worries were 61.20 ±16.10 and 86.70 ±19.97, respectively. Pearson correlation test results showed a negative significant relationship between illness-related worries and SI (r=-0.608, P=0.001). Cognitive independence domain of illness-related worries was strongly correlated with all SI domains, including critical existential thinking, personal meaning production, transcendental awareness, and conscious state expansion. The SI had a significant relationship with gender (P=0.001), marital status (P=0.014), economic status (P=0.002), employment status (P=0.018), education status (P=0.001), insurance coverage (P=0.001). The illness-related worries had a significant relationship with gender (P=0.001), history of diabetes (P=0.04), marital status (P=0.001), educational level (P=0.044), and insurance coverage (P=0.01).

To reduce the illness-related worries of people with heart failure, their SI should be improved using related interventions such as SI training programs.