Correlation Between Spiritual Well-Being and Mental Health Among Older Adults

Spiritual well-being and mental health are two essential pillars of a comprehensive healthcare system, particularly in older adults. The present study aimed to determine the correlation between spiritual well-being and mental health among older adults and to identify associations between these variables and selected demographic factors. A correlational study was conducted over nine months among 200 older adults in a selected community area in Bhubaneswar, India. Data were collected using a self-structured sociodemographic proforma, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, and the English Spiritual Wellbeing Scale. Interviews were conducted over 15 days to gather information from the study participants. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25.0 (Released 2017; IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Spearman's correlation was applied to examine the relationship between spiritual well-being and mental health. The chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, t test, and ANOVA were used to analyze associations with sociodemographic variables. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The study found no correlation between spiritual well-being and mental health. Similarly, no significant association was observed between sociodemographic variables and spiritual well-being. However, age (p = 0.048), education (p = 0.002), and socioeconomic status (p = 0.005) were significantly correlated with mental health. The findings indicated that a greater proportion of older adults fell into the categories of partial and poor spiritual well-being compared to complete spiritual well-being. Most participants were categorized as having fair mental well-being. Overall, no correlation was observed between spiritual well-being and mental health among older adults.