رابطه سلامت معنوی با اضطراب مرگ در بیماران مبتلا به مالتیپل اسکلروزیس

Background and Purpose: Death anxiety is a common problem in patients with chronic and hard-to-treat diseases, which can affect mental health of these patients. Spiritual health is an important aspect of human health. Thus, we aimed to investigate the relationship between death anxiety with spiritual health in female patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS). Materials and Methods: This study was performed in all female MS patients who referred to the Special Diseases Department in Rafsanjan, Iran, in 2015 (n=116). The study instrument consisted of spiritual health questionnaire (20 items) designed by Palutzian and Ellison and death anxiety questionnaire (15 items) developed by Templer. The data was analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis simultaneously. Results: The total mean scores of spiritual, religious, and existential health were 98.10 &plusmn;14.87, 49.26&plusmn;8.08, and 48.83&plusmn;7.72, respectively. The results showed a significant relationship between spiritual health and its dimensions (religious and existential health) with death anxiety (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results of the present study demonstarted that most of the MS patients had moderate spiritual health and that their religious health level was slightly higher than their existential health, which seems normal in our culture.