Spirituality, Religiousness, and the Achievement of Vision Rehabilitation Goals Among Middle-Age and Older Adults

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: Visual impairment is a prevalent condition that often must be addressed through rehabilitation. However, the effects of spirituality on vision rehabilitation goal success have received scant attention in the literature. Method: Cross-sectional analyses examined the relationship of spirituality and religiousness to vision rehabilitation goals among 195 adults ranging in age from 45 to 99 years, while controlling for social support resources. Sixty-four percent were women, and the same proportion was non-Hispanic white. Spiritual domains of purpose and meaning, innerconnectedness, transcendence, and connections to others, along with extrinsic and intrinsic religiousness served as major independent covariates. Results: Structural equation modeling found that intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness and spirituality had significant positive effects on rehabilitation training, but that spirituality and intrinsic religiousness had negative effects on low vision rehabilitation goals. Conclusion: The positive relationship between rehabilitation training and religiousness and spirituality suggests that interventions to support spirituality in this population would be highly beneficial. The negative relationship between these resources and low vision rehabilitation goals deserves further study.