Spiritual Health and Religious Practices as Correlates to the Quality of Life amongst Faculty and Staff

Abstract

Introduction: The Quality of Life (QOL) of individuals transcends the concept of the multiple domains of health. It is the individual’s highly subjective discernment of his position in life in relation to his goals, expectations, and standards. It is a perception of well-being and life satisfaction. Literatures have consistently reported evidences of association between spirituality and quality of life. But despite the increasing number of studies on spirituality and quality of life, few studies explore the role of spiritual health and religious practices in the quality of life of faculty and staff of educational institutions. Thus, this descriptive-correlational study determined the relationship between the spiritual health and religious practices of the respondents and their quality of life.
 
 Methods: Through purposive sampling, 177 respondents were selected. The instrument utilized was composed of adapted questions from World Health Organization’s Quality of Life (WHO-QOL) and Spiritual Health and Life Orientation Measure (SHALOM). Data gathered were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as the mean, standard deviation, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and linear regression.
 
 Results: The study revealed high levels of spiritual health, religious practices and quality of life of the respondents. Both spiritual health and religious practices were significantly related to the quality of life. Furthermore, married respondents and the teaching faculty had higher level of quality of life compared to those who are unmarried and non-teaching. Lastly, spiritual health is the highest predictor of the quality of life.
 
 Recommendation: This study endeavors to help create an environment that would enhance the spiritual health and therefore, the quality of life of the faculty and staff.