Spiritual well-being and quality of life of older adults in hemodialysis

To analyze the relationship between spiritual well-being, sociodemographic, economic, religious, and health variables and the quality of life of older adults undergoing hemodialysis.

Method:

This was a cross-sectional and correlational study conducted with 169 older adults undergoing hemodialysis. The researchers conducted interviews to collect sociodemographic, economic, religious, and health data and applied the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) and the WHO quality of life assessment (WHOQOL-BREF and WHOQOL-OLD).

Results:

Most of the older adults attained a moderate level of total spiritual well-being (SWB). In terms of QOL, the psychological domain (66.8; sd=13.9) and social relationships domain (66.8; sd=15.1) presented the highest mean scores. The WHOQOL-BREF domains were positively correlated with the SWB scale, with statistical significance among all domains and subscales except the environmental domain.

Conclusion:

The QOL of older adults was associated with the construct of SWB, either positively or negatively.

Descriptors:
Renal Dialysis; Spirituality; Quality of Life; Religion; Aged

Variables	Male		Female		Total
Variables	n	%	n	%	n	%
Age group
60-69 years	68	40.2	22	13.0	90	53.3
70-79 years	46	27.2	14	8.3	60	35.5
Skin color
White	80	47.3	28	16.6	108	63.9
Black	23	13.6	12	7.1	35	20.7
Brown	13	7.7	4	2.4	17	10.1
Yellow	8	4.7	-	-	8	4.7
Undeclared	1	0.6	-	-	1	0.6
Marital status
Married/live together	91	53.8	19	11.3	110	65.1
Widower	15	8.9	20	11.8	35	20.7
Divorced/Separated	13	7.7	3	1.8	16	9.5
Single	6	3.5	2	1.1	8	4.7
Years of formal schooling
None	10	6.0	4	2.4	14	8.3
1 to 4	63	37.3	24	14.2	87	51.5
5 to 9	18	10.6	11	6.5	29	17.2
10 or more	34	20.1	5	3.0	39	23.0
Has an income
Yes	124	73.4	40	23.7	164	97.0
No	1	0.6	4	2.7	5	3.0
Religion/Doctrine
Catholic	80	47.3	24	14.2	104	61.5
Evangelical	22	13.0	13	7.7	35	20.7
Spiritist	10	5.9	5	3.0	15	8.9
Buddhist	1	0.6	-	-	1	0.6
Other	4	2.3	-	-	4	2.3
No religion	8	4.7	1	0.6	9	5.3
Considers themselves religious
No	31	18.3	1	0.6	32	19.0
Yes	93	55.0	43	25.4	136	81.0
Other	1	0.6	-	-	1	0.6

Variables	Minimum	Median	Mean	Standard Deviation
WHOQOL-BREF domains
Physical	14.3	57.1	55.5	16.5
Psychological	25.0	66.7	66.8	13.9
Social relationships	25.0	66.7	66.8	15.1
Environmental	25.0	65.3	63.4	10.7
Overall quality of life	25.0	62.5	64.0	15.8
WHOQOL-OLD facets
Sensory abilities	6.25	68.7	65.7	22.7
Autonomy	6.25	62.5	62.7	13.5
Past, present and future activities	6.25	68.7	66.7	13.7
Social participation	18.7	62.5	59.6	15.6
Death and dying	-	75.0	69.4	25.0
Intimacy	12.5	75.0	73.6	15.9
Overall quality of life	27.0	66.7	66.3	10.6

Variables	Total spiritual well-being		Religious well-being		Existential well-being
Variables	r^* * Pearson's Correlation Coefficient;	p^ Statistical significance for p<0.05 considering the hypothesis that the studied group constituted a probabilistic sample of a population with similar characteristics;	r^* * Pearson's Correlation Coefficient;	p^ Statistical significance for p<0.05 considering the hypothesis that the studied group constituted a probabilistic sample of a population with similar characteristics;	r^* * Pearson's Correlation Coefficient;	p^ Statistical significance for p<0.05 considering the hypothesis that the studied group constituted a probabilistic sample of a population with similar characteristics;
Age	-0.05	0.523	-0.01	0.866	-0.07	0.331
Years of formal schooling	0.04	0.606	-0.05	0.477	0.12	0.103
Income	-0.04	0.536	-0.14	0.069	0.05	0.488
Comorbidities	0.03	0.693	0.04	0.557	0.00	0.903
Number of hospital admissions	0.06	0.416	0.03	0.677	0.08	0.300
Hemodialysis^* ***** In years.	0.05	0.496	0.07	0.334	0.02	0.798

Domains	Spiritual well-being total		Religious well-being		Existential well-being
Domains	r^* * Pearson's Correlation Coefficient;	p^ Statistical significance for p<0.05 considering the hypothesis that the studied group constituted a probabilistic sample of a population with similar characteristics.	r^* * Pearson's Correlation Coefficient;	p^ Statistical significance for p<0.05 considering the hypothesis that the studied group constituted a probabilistic sample of a population with similar characteristics.	r^* * Pearson's Correlation Coefficient;	p^ Statistical significance for p<0.05 considering the hypothesis that the studied group constituted a probabilistic sample of a population with similar characteristics.
WHOQOL-bref
Physical	0.25	0.001	0.16	0.036	0.28	<0.001
Psychological	0.54	<0.001	0.38	<0.001	0.59	<0.001
Social relationships	0.34	<0.001	0.25	<0.001	0.35	<0.001
Environmental	0.29	<0.001	0.11	0.152	0.41	<0.001
WHOQOL-old
Sensory abilities	0.02	0.708	-0.06	0.443	0.11	0.152
Autonomy	0.31	<0.001	0.16	0.034	0.39	<0.001
Past, present and future activities	0.38	<0.001	0.21	0.006	0.47	<0.001
Social participation	0.28	<0.001	0.14	0.057	0.36	<0.001
Death and dying	0.11	0.149	0.05	0.496	0.14	0.058
Intimacy	0.41	<0.001	0.26	<0.001	0.46	<0.001
Overall quality of life	0.37	<0.001	0.18	0.018	0.49	<0.001

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[1] CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Caliope Pilger. Email: caliopepilger@hotmail.com