Religion and Health
Year:2017 | Volume:5 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:9

Background and Purpose: Psychologists mainly pointed out the positive effects of religion on human life. According to the Islamic teachings, spiritual health is among the characteristics of a perfect human. This study sought to design a mental health questionnaire based on the Islamic teachings and to confirm its validity and reliability. The study population included the undergraduate students of public universities of Tehran, Iran, in 2014.Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 500 participants who were randomly selected through cluster sampling method. They completed the mental health questionnaire based on Islamic teachings (MHQ- IT), GHQ, and SCL90. MHQ-IT was implemented in three versions of preliminary (with 122 items), trial (with 96 items), and final (with 90 items). Moreover, 33 items remained after the final analysis.Results: Regarding the results, three factors were extracted using exploratory factor analysis including faith in God (23 items), self-control (7 items), and submission (3 items), which explained 32.06%, 9.8%, and 7.05% of the variance in the whole test (49.5%), respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated the propriety of the model and data. In addition, there was a significant correlation between GHQ-IT, GHQ, and SCL90. On the other hand, the observed difference between the total score and its factors among healthy and non-healthy individuals indicated the differential validity of the questionnaire. The internal consistency of this questionnaire and its mentioned factors were 0.932, 0.942, 0.696, and 0.628, respectively and its test-retest reliability was 0.946.Conclusion: This questionnaire was provided to investigate the mental health based on Islamic teachings and could measure people's mental health along with other diagnostic tools. This questionnaire could be used in consultation and research activities.

Background and Purpose: Female householders, for reasons such as playing multiple roles, poverty, and loneliness, are one of the vulnerable social groups, especially from a mental health point of view. In this study, we aimed to predict mental health based on hope and religious orientation among female householders.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive, correlational study, 150 female householders were selected via the convenience sampling method. The participants completed General Health Questionnaire, Allport’s Intrinsic/Extrinsic Religious Orientation Scale, and Snyder's adult hope scale. For the data analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient and simultaneous multiple regression were run.Results: There was a significant negative correlation between hope and mental health and intrinsic religious orientation and mental health (r=0.386, P<0.01). In addition, there was a significant direct correlation between extrinsic religious orientation and mental health (r=0.388, P<0.01). Regression analysis showed that hope and religious orientation, together, predicted 45% of the variance in mental health.Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that hope and intrinsic religious orientation decrease anxiety, insomnia, severe depression, somatic symptoms, and social dysfunction. However, extrinsic religious orientation exacerbate these symptoms. Therefore, hope and intrinsic religious orientation are important factors in positive coping responses to life problems and could maintain mental health among female householders.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease mediated by myelin activated T-cell crossing the blood-brain barrier. This disease starts by an autoimmune attack on the myelin sheath. The characteristic feature of MS is relapsing-remitting neurological signs affecting various parts of the nervous sytem at different times. During the Ramadan month, fasting permission is a common question. According to some evidence, fasting not only has no adverse effect on stable MS disability indicated by expanded status disability scale (EDSS) of ˂ 3, but also has regenerative neuroimmunological benefits. Although some MS symptoms, such as blurred vision, spasticity, gait ataxia, fatigue, weakness, and cognitive problems, could exacerbate during fasting, they remit immediately after fasting. Nevertheless, the patients with active MS or history of new attack during or after Ramadan, those on treatment with antispasmodic, anticonvulsive, corticosteroid, and immunosuppressive drugs, and patients with EDSS of>7 are supposed to abstain from Ramadan fasting, specially in hot summer months.

Background and Purpose: Given the positive outcomes of a stable marriage, the researchers have paid much attention to the parameters and factors affecting the improvement of marital quality. Religiosity and the role of religion and religious beliefs are among the most important factors in this regard. Therefore, the present study aimed to predict marital quality based on spiritual orientation.Materials and Methods: This descriptive, correlational study was conducted on 844 married individuals with the mean age of 31.7 years in Mashhad, Iran. The data were collected by means of the Sociodemographic Characteristics Form, Spiritual Orientation Inventory, and Marital Quality Inventory, the validity and reliability of which have been confirmed in Iran. The data analysis was performed using the descriptive and inferential statistics (stepwise regression) in SPSS software, version 22.Results: According to the results, spiritual orientation and marital quality were correlated (r=0.582). The coefficient of determination indicated that 27% of the variability in the dependent variable (i.e., marital quality) was explained by spiritual orientation. Moreover, the significance of the regression model confirmed the linear relationship between the variables.Conclusion: Based on the findings, it seems that spiritual orientation and its components are among the main indicators of marital quality and stable marriage and play a decisive role in marital quality.

From the view of Islamic philosophers, especially Ibn Sina, philosophy is accountable for providing the basis for other sciences. According to Ibn Sina, medicine is one of the aspects of natural philosophy the concepts and judgments of which originate from natural philosophy. In his medical textbooks, Ibn Sina draws on philosophical theories and views, one of which is a discussion of humanity and its reality. According to him: 1) Human being is composed of two components of soul and body, which are interdependent.2) He is a total solidarity which includes components, and the total reality is different from the reality of the components.3) Human being is not a complicated machine that can be analyzed quantitatively, but it has diverse qualitative dimensions.4) Human is a living organism, but it is not solely a biological being. These four mentioned cases are some of Avicenna’s philosophical theories, which provide the foundation for traditional medicine with regard to anthropological issues. In this article, along with expounding these basics, a comparison has been made with the modern medical anthropology.

Background and Purpose: Some studies indicate that in the absence of spiritual health education, education cannot function properly in biological, psychological, and social aspects or reach its maximum potential. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the relationship between spiritual health and achievement motivation among students of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in 2016.Materials and Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among 125 students in the second semester of 2016. The participants were selected by using the stratified sampling method and proportionate to the number of students in each faculty. The Spiritual Well- Being Scale (SWBS) questionnaire designed by Paloutzian and Ellison in 1983 and Hermans’s Achievement Motivation Test were employed for data collection. The obtained data were analyzed by performing the Mann– Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests in SPSS, version 18.Results: In this study, 08%, 95.2%, and 4% of the study subjects had low, moderate, and high levels of spiritual health, respectively. Moreover, a significant relationship was noted between achievement motivation score and prayer (P<0.05). Also, there was a significant association between spiritual health and the level of religiosity (P<0.05). The Chi-squared test indicated a significant difference between the students of different study subjects with respect to spiritual health (P<0.05).Conclusion: We found that the majority of the subjects had a moderate level of spiritual health. Considering the significant relationship between achievement motivation and prayer, we recommend taking the necessary measures to promote spiritual health of students to improve their educational performance.

Background and Purpose: AIDS is a disease that not only affects physical health but also mental wellbeing of patients due to the myriad social problems, dominant misconceptions, and social stigma. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the relationship between religious coping strategies and quality of life in HIV-positive patients.Materials and Methods: This descriptive-correlational study was performed on 105 HIV patients visiting the behavioral counseling centers of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran, in the first half of 2013. The participants were chosen using the convenience sampling method. The data collection instruments included the multidimensional QOL questionnaire for AIDS (MQoL-HIV) and Aflak seir and Goleman’s Religious Coping Styles Questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise regression.Results: The results showed a positive relationship between religious coping styles (religious activities, charitable assessment, and active coping) and quality of life, but a negative association was noted between religious coping styles (negative feelings toward God and passive coping) and quality of life. Regression analysis showed that the component of negative feelings toward God (adjusted R2=0.35) plays the greatest role in the quality of life of these patients.Conclusion: Increased positive religious coping and reduced negative religious coping can improve the quality of life in HIV patients. To promote religious coping, educational programs can be used as a guideline for rehabilitation of these patients.

Background and Purpose: Although Quran and Nahj al-Balagha are not related to medicine and health sciences fields, these resources have some features that make them appropriate to be used in developing guidelines related to health and disease. Therefore, we sought to determine the rate of application of Quran and Nahj al-Balagha as references in preparing medical articles.Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the Persianlanguage scientific articles published by universities of medical sciences were selected based on the census sampling method. The data were garnered by using a researcher-made checklist aligned with research objectives and through the analysis of all the related articles and their reference lists. To analyze the data, descriptive statistical indexes were employed.Results: The data obtained from reviewing 186735 citations in 6907 articles published in 696 journals of 47 medical universities showed that the Holy Quran and Nahj al-Balagha were cited as references 404 and 20 times (less than 1%), respectively. The highest citation rates pertained to Al-Baqurah, Al- Anaam, An-Nisa, and Al-Isra surahs, respectively.Conclusion: Quran and Nahj al-Balagha were cited in a limited number of medical articles.

Hippocratic Oath, which is the oldest medical oath, has been historically taken by physicians in medical schools in ancient Greece, Persia, and other countries. In this oath, the principle medical ethics have been considered as an obligation for those who graduate as a medical doctor. As the current medical oath in Islamic countries such as Iran is based on Hippocratic Oath, this study sought to compare its different subjects with Quran by providing references in each subject to Quranic Surahs.As Islam provides comprehensive ethical rules and supports human rights, in almost all cases, the ethical obligations of medical oath are approved and recommended by Quran. Obviously, this study can open a new vision into Muslims and non-Muslims to better understanding of the medical ethics in Islam.