Evaluation of Spiritual Health in Adolescents with Thalassemia Major

Abstract

Background: Due to the importance of spiritual health in patients with thalassemia and its positive and significant effects on improving the treatment process and mental, psychological and social conditions of these patients and according to the results of previous studies, patients with thalassemia have high spiritual health. The lack of studies in this field, the present study was conducted to determine the spiritual health of adolescents with thalassemia major.
 Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 100 adolescents with thalassemia major. Sampling was done by available means. Patients' spiritual health was measured using the Poltzin and Ellison spiritual health questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics tests and the relationship between mean spiritual health and mean age of patients with Pearson correlation coefficient test, its relationship with gender and place of residence with independent t-test and its relationship with economic status with ANOVA.
 Results: The mean and standard deviation of patients' spiritual health score was 74.23 ± 11.45, which showed a moderate level of spiritual health. 12% of patients (12 patients) reported low spiritual health, 84% (84 patients) reported moderate spiritual health and 4% (4 patients) reported high spiritual health. There was no significant relationship between spiritual health and demographic characteristics (p value > 0.05).
 Conclusion: According to the results of this study which showed that adolescents with thalassemia have a moderate level of spiritual health and due to the high importance of spiritual health in improving treatment, adherence to treatment regimen, life expectancy and mental health of patients, It is necessary to take appropriate measures to improve the spiritual health of these patients.