Health, Spirituality and Medical Ethics

Background and Objectives: Spirituality has a positive relationship with general health and as a strong force binds different aspects of an individual’s life to confront his tense situations. Quality of life and optimism can be influenced by spiritual, psychological, and occupational factors. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between spiritual health and quality of life and optimism on the staff members of Arak University of Medical Sciences.

Methods: This descriptive and correlational research was conducted in Arak University of Medical Sciences, in 2012. Among staff members of this university, 148 participants were selected via available sampling method. Data was collected by Paloutzian’s Spiritual Well-Being questionnaire, Life Orientation Test questionnaire, and Quality of life questionnaire (sf-36). All data were analyzed using Pearson, Spearman and t-test.

Results: The mean score of age, Quality of life, spiritual well-being, and optimism of the staff were 36±7.4, 40.3 ± 20, 89.4 ± 19, and 15.4 ± 3 respectively. There was a significant relationship between Spiritual well-being and Quality of life and also between Spiritual well-being and Optimism. Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between Quality of life and Optimism.

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that spiritual well-being had a significant positive relationship with Quality of life and Optimism. There were no significant differences between Spiritual well-being, Optimism, and Quality of life and age, gender, and years of service.