Spiritual health promotion may improve happiness scores for medical students in Iran

1. In this study, the relationship between spiritual health and happiness was significant amongst medical students in Iran.

2. Furthermore, the students’ happiness scores were not optimal during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Evidence Rating Level: 3 (Average)

Studies have shown that spiritual health plays an integral part in promoting a satisfactory quality of life through several means, including the reduction of mental distress. Compared to students in other fields, medical students face rising mental health problems. As ongoing solutions are being sought to address this issue, the objective of the present descriptive-analytical study was to investigate the relationship between spiritual health and happiness amongst medical students, more specifically during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The study included 409 medical students (71.3% females, mean age 21.6) using a multistage random sampling method from Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Students were included if they had completed at least 6 months in medical college. Students were excluded if they had a history of mental health disorders or experienced a serious personal tragedy in the previous month. 3 questionnaires were administered: a demographic questionnaire, the Ellison Spiritual Health Questionnaire, and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. Qualitative variables were measured using one-sample t-test, analysis of variance and Pearson correlation. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient.

Study results demonstrated that the relationship between spiritual health and happiness was significant amongst medical students. However, the students’ happiness scores were not optimal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these results, the present study was limited by the absence of a native tool based on Islamic beliefs to measure spiritual health, which may have impacted accuracy. Nonetheless, this study was significant as this was one of the first to examine the relationship between spiritual health and happiness amongst medical students in COVID-19, which may help future plans for health improvement in students.

Click to read the study in Frontiers in Psychology 

Image: PD

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