Effect of Group Spiritual Therapy on Quality of Life and Spiritual Health on Patients with Multiple Sclerosis in Ahvaz City, Iran

Abstract

Background: The quality of life of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the important variables that can play an important role in coping with the disease. Therefore, studying the role of the interference factors in quality of life of patients with MS is important; hence, the current study aimed at investigating the effect of group spiritual therapy on quality of life and spiritual health of patients with MS in Ahvaz city, Iran. Methods: The current semi-experimental study with the experimental, control, and follow-up groups was conducted on 80 patients with MS. Subjects were selected based on the inclusion criteria, and randomly divided into two groups of experimental (n = 40) and control (n = 40). The study tools were Msis-29 and the Paloutzian-Ellison spiritual health scale. Data analysis including descriptive statistics (frequency, average, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (repeated measures ANOVA) were performed with SPSS version 19. Results: The findings of the study showed that the mean of quality of life and spiritual health of the patients were moderate. The mean score of the physical aspect of quality of life was higher than that of the mental one. There was a significant difference between the quality life, aspects of quality of life (physical and mental), and spiritual health of the experimental and control groups (P < 0.05) in the post-test and follow-up stages. Conclusions: The current study showed that group spirituality training can be effective on improving the quality of life and spiritual health of patients with MS.