Mental health symptoms, spiritual well‐being and meaning in life among older adults living in nursing homes and community dwellings

Abstract

Background: Ageing is a process involving physical, social, psychological, spiritual and cultural changes. The elderly's personal characteristics may change, and the place where they live can lead to differences in their individual life expectations. Nursing home or community dwelling, where the elderly live can affect their psychological and spiritual well-being and their search for meaning in life. This study aimed to determine mental health symptoms, spiritual well-being and meaning in life among older adults living in nursing homes and community dwellings. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in three provinces of Turkey with the highest population of elderly people aged 60 and above. A total of 144 elderly people (71 living in nursing homes and 73 in community dwellings) participated in the study. The Descriptive Information Form, Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), Spiritual Well-Being Scale and Meaning in Life Questionnaire were used for data collection. For the statistical analysis, the Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U-test and Spearman correlation analysis were applied. Results: About 42.3% of the elderly living in nursing homes were aged 80 and above, while 61.6% of those living in community dwellings were in the age range of 60-69 years. The hostility score in the community-dwelling elders was statistically higher than that of elders living in nursing homes. However, the harmony with nature score was lower in the communitydwelling elders. Negative relationships were found between total spiritual well-being and depression, anxiety, negative self and somatisation. Meanwhile, existing meaning in life found positive relationships among transcendence and harmony with nature. Conclusions: The awareness of healthcare workers is very important in helping the elderly make sense of the changes they experience. Moreover these healthcare workers should undergo systematic training to help the elderly prepare for old age by making sense of preserving mental integrity and seeking meaning in their lives.

Spirituality and Attitudes Toward Death Among Older Adults in Rural and Urban China: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Meanwhile, the meaning of life, self, and people around scores of the female elderly were higher than those of male elderly in urban areas. In rural and urban areas, the dimensions of spirituality and attitudes toward death were also affected by age, educational status, marital status, and health condition, which is supported by previous studies (Aydın et al, 2020 ; Garbaccio et al, 2018 ; Hirakawa et al, 2019 ; Kwak, 2020 ; Liu et al, 2015 ; MacLeod et al, 2019 ; Ohrnberger et al, 2017 ; Rababa et al, 2021 ; Stokes & Moorman, 2018 ; Su et al, 2017 ; Zadworna-Cieslak, 2020 ; Zhou et al, 2018 ).…”

Espiritualidad en adultos mayores y sus beneficios en salud: una revisión narrativa

“…Retomando el cuidado espiritual e importancia de su abordaje desde la enfermería y los profesionales de salud, en Turquía se evidenció que la conciencia de los trabajadores de salud es relevante en la asistencia de los adultos mayores para ayudarles en la comprensión de los cambios por lo que atraviesan y la búsqueda del significado de su existencia por esto es imprescindible la formación de dichos trabajadores de salud 29 , por otra parte los proveedores de atención médica son los directos responsables de hacer que la situación sea apropiada para el desarrollo espiritual para el fortalecimiento de la autoestima y dignidad 30 , en el mismo sentido la provisión de atención espiritual por parte de enfermeros y médicos es considerada como un factor que mejora la salud espiritual de los adultos mayores 31 .…”

Spiritual health, family functioning and symptoms of depression and anxiety among adults from a sample of northeastern Mexico

“…Very recent studies in different parts of the world and with different groups and populations have shown the association of spiritual health with the reduction of symptoms of depression. As an example of these studies, there are those carried out among older adults in Turkey living in nursing homes and community housing (Aydin et al, 2020), patients diagnosed with breast cancer (Soleimani et al, 2020) and hospitalized with serious illnesses in Iranian medical centers (Bashar et al, 2018;Khademvatani et al, 2015), adults from the general American (Roeback III, 2020) and Korean population (Fukai et al, 2020), adults living in Spain during the pandemic of Covid-19 (González-Sanguino et al, 2020), American Methodist clergy (Milstein et al, 2020) and patients with chronic orthopedic diseases in China (Weng et al, 2021). Likewise, significant negative correlations were found between spiritual health and anxiety in studies already cited (Aydin et al, 2020;González-Sanguino et al, 2020;Soleimani et al, 2020;Weng et al, 2021) and in other Iranian samples, from hospitalized coronary patients (Hedayati et al, 2016;Khademvatani et al, 2015), from nurses, midwives and nursing students (Rahimi et al, 2017) and elderly from the general population (Solaimanizadeh et al, 2020).…”