Spiritual Pain in Meals on Wheels’ Clients

Abstract

Background: Meals on Wheels’ clients are at risk for spiritual pain due to advanced age, social isolation, and failing health. They are also prone to stress, depression, and loneliness, placing them at risk for adverse biological disruptions and health outcomes. The purpose of the study was to examine associations of spiritual pain with psychosocial factors (stress, depression, loneliness, religious coping) and salivary biomarkers of stress and inflammation (cortisol, IL-1β) in Meals on Wheels’ clients. Methods: Data were collected cross-sectionally from 88 elderly (mean age 75.4). Spiritual pain, stress, depression, loneliness, and religious coping were measured with standardized instruments, and salivary biomarkers were assessed with enzyme immunoassays. Results: Spiritual pain was significantly and positively correlated with stress (r = 0.35, p ≤ 0.001), depression (r = 0.27, p = 0.01), and negative religious coping (r = 0.27, p = 0.01). Correlations with loneliness, positive religious coping, and salivary biomarkers were non-significant. Conclusion: Spiritual pain is an important concept in this population. Research should be expanded to understand the significance of spiritual pain in conjunction with psychosocial and biological variables and its potential impact on physical, mental, and cognitive health outcomes in the elderly.

The effects of physical activity on anxiety, depression, and quality of life in elderly people living in the community

“…13 All of these factors impair QOL, favoring social isolation and the appearance of severe cases of clinical diseases. 14,15 Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires expenditure of energy 16 greater than resting levels, such as walking, dancing, gardening, climbing stairs, among other activities. 17 Physical exercise, in turn, is defined as planned, structured, repetitive bodily movements (prescribed by professionals or not) performed to improve or maintain one or more components of physical fitness.…”