Relationship between Spiritual Intelligence and Spiritual Health with the Quality of Life of Patients with Inflammation Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is influenced by diet, stress, and lifestyle and is spreading globally. Severe physical symptoms, anxiety, and depression in this disease have caused the ineffectiveness of medical treatments. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between spiritual health and spiritual intelligence with the quality of life of patients with IBD in Yazd.

This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on IBD patients in Yazd city. The inclusion criteria were being over 18 years old, willing to participate in the study, having a history of ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease for more than 6 months, and not having cognitive disorders. Patients with irritable bowel syndrome were not included in the study. The data was collected by convenience sampling and using four questionnaires including demographic, King's Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory, Polotzin and Ellison's spiritual health questionnaire, and quality of life questionnaire (SF-36). SPSS version 26 was used for data analysis.

A total of 336 patients (87.5% response rate) were entered into the study. The mean quality of life scores was significantly higher in affected women and patients over 50 years old (P<0.05). The mean score of spiritual intelligence was insignificantly higher in female patients and patients aged between 30 and 40 years. The spiritual health means score was significantly higher in female patients and patients aged over 50 years. Quality of life had a significant positive correlation with Spiritual health (r=0.39) and with spiritual intelligence (r=0.20) (P<0.001).

Female patients had higher quality of life, spiritual intelligence, and spiritual health. Quality of life had a significant positive correlation with Spiritual health and spiritual intelligence. It is recommended to conduct more studies on the impact of spirituality on the quality of life in other chronic diseases.