---

Introduction: Attention to spirituality and effective related factors is so important because it brings peace and Indescribable joy as a need for older adults. This study examined the relationship between spirituality health with depression and sleep quality in older adults in Shahroud.
Method: In this descriptive-analytical study, 235 older adults in Shahroud was participated, Data were collected by using demographic form, Alison’s and palowtzin spiritual health questionnaire, Geriatric Depression Scale and Petersburg sleep quality index (PSQI) questionnaire. Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient, Independent T test and one-way ANOVA statistical tests and by SPSS software version19.
Results: The average age of older adults was 66.48 ± 4.82 and 53.7% of them was female. The majority of them was married (69.8%) and had primary education (64.4%). There was significant negative correlation between depression and spiritual health (dimensions and total score) in older adults (P<0.001). Also significant negative correlation revealed between total score of spiritual health and its dimensions with sleep quality (P<0/001).
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it is recommended to more attention to spiritual health in older adults and using strategies to promote it, as a useful way to prevent and reduce depression and improve sleep quality of this age group.

---

Introduction: Some factors can affect on older people's mental health including stress diversity, disability to face future and death and their attitudes towards death. However, the spirituality and positive affect have impact on elderly’s mental health. Therefore, the purpose of present study was investigating the role of spirituality and positive effect in attitudes towards death in elderlies of Yasuj city.
Method: This study was a descriptive correlational. The statistical population was included of men and women 55 years and older in Yasuj city. The statistical sample consisted of 250 subjects who selected by available sampling method. Data collection tools included revised questionnaire of attitudes towards death (DAP-R), positive and negative affect scale (PANAS) and spirituality questionnaire (SQ). Data were analyzed using software SPSS-17 and Pearson correlation coefficient, enter and stepwise regression analysis and path analysis.
Results: The results showed that there was a significant positive relationship between spirituality and attitude to death. There was a significant positive correlation between positive affect and attitudes towards death. The results of stepwise regression showed that spiritual self-awareness and spiritual activities were the best predictor of attitudes toward death. Also, the results of regression showed that positive affect than spirituality was better predictors for attitude toward death.
Conclusion: Based on the results obtained it can be concluded that positive affect and spirituality have influential role on the elderly attitudes toward death.

---

Introduction: Attention and concentration on predictor variables of loneliness feeling in the elderly is an introduction to successful reduction of loneliness feeling and decreasing its serious consequences. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of communication skills, social support and daily spiritual experiences in predicting loneliness feeling of the elderly.

Method: This is descriptive- analytical study. The statistical population of this study was all elderly in Tehran at 2016. Four hundred elderly who are living at home were selected by cluster sampling from different areas of Tehran city. The Revised loneliness feeling scale, Interpersonal Communication Skills questionnaire, Social support questionnaire, and Daily spiritual experiences questionnaire were used to collect information. Data were analyzed by SPSS, version 23, using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression method.

Results: The statistical results indicated the negative significant correlations between communication skills (r= -0/40, P<0/001), social support (r= -0/20, P<0/001) and daily spiritual experiences (r= -0/50, P<0/001) with loneliness feeling. Multivariate regression analysis showed that 38 percent of the variance in loneliness feeling of the elderly is explained by the communication skills, social support and daily spiritual experiences.

 Conclusion: Communication skills, social support and daily spiritual experiences have a significant role in predicting loneliness feeling of the elderly. The results of this study have significant therapeutic implications about the importance of these variables in the loneliness feeling of the elderly.

---

Introduction: Aging, body breakdown and physiological function decline were resulted in massive physiological changes in tissues, organs and their function, which can affect the daily living activities and the physical independence of in elderly. One of the chronic diseases of the elderly is hypertension. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to the effect of activity and spiritual health based self-care program on hypertension among the Kahrizak elderly people in the Alborz province.
Method: The present study is a quasi-experimental research that is conducted in Karaj in 2017. The data collection was done using a barometer that is calibered. The blood pressure was controlled by researcher. Also, daily living-related questionnaire and spiritual well-being questionnaire were completed. Ninty elderly were selected through non-randomly and available sampling method from Kahrizak elderly residence center in the Alborz province. The control group used routine center programs. For the test group, the program included activity of daily living and walking three times a week for 20 minutes were designed and implemented. For the self-care program group, a spiritual program (including the prayers of the verse Ayat-Alkorsi and Salavat) was designed and implemented, in addition to the program of the test group. Then, SPSS 16 software were used for data analysis.
Results: According to the Chi-square test, the elderly did not show significant differences concerning age, sex, and disease duration (p> 0.05). Based on Kruskal-Wallis test, the mean  blood pressures in three groups the control, was significantly different (p <0.05). The Mann-Whitney test revealed no significant difference between the mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures between the two groups of test and self-care group (p> 0.05).
Conclusion: The results show that the application of activity and spiritual health based self care program is efficient on the elderly affected by hypertension. It is suggested that self-care Model with a focus on activity and spiritual health usage, to be considered for other diseases.
 

---

Introduction: In recent years, the issues of decreased sleep quality and lower mental toughness among older individuals have received significant attention. Spirituality therapy has emerged as a possible intervention to overcome these problems, with researchers showing increased interest in the topic. Therefore, this paper aims to examine how group spirituality therapy affects sleep quality and mental toughness in older individuals in the City of Khorramabad.
Methods: This study follows a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population includes all senior citizens residing in retirement homes in the City of Khorramabad in 2017. A convenience sample of 30 individuals was drawn and randomly assigned to two groups of experiment and control (15 people in either group). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (1989) and the MTQ48 (2002) were administered to both groups as pre-test and post-test. The experiment group received eight hour-long group spirituality therapy training sessions. The collected data were then analyzed using MANCOVA and ANCOVA in SPSS 23.0.
Results: Analysis of covariance revealed that spirituality therapy has a significant positive impact on both the quality of sleep and mental toughness among older individuals (p = 0.001).
Conclusions: Given the fact that group spirituality therapy was found to improve sleep quality and mental toughness, this approach is recommended as an effective intervention to resolve psychological issues among the elderly, especially those pertaining to quality of sleep and mental toughness.
 

---

Introduction: Defective metacognitive beliefs and dysfunctional attitude are some of the problems that have been observed in aging. The importance of spiritual therapy training to the elderly has also been considered in recent years; Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of spiritual therapy on metacognitive beliefs and dysfunctional attitude of elderly people in Khorramabad city in 2017.
 Method: The present study is a quasi-experimental (pre-test - post-test with control group). The statistical population of this research includes all elderly care centers of Khorramabad old people in 2017. The statistical sample was selected by a sampling method in 30 people and randomly assigned to test and control groups (15 individuals for each group). Both groups completed the Wales and Carthage-Haughton metacognitive beliefs (2004) and the dysfunctional attitude scale (1978) questionnaire during the evaluation stages. Eight sessions (one hour a week). Spiritual therapy training was conducted in the experimental group and the control group received customary nursing home programs. The collected data were analyzed using multivariate and univariable covariance analysis using SPSS version 23 software.
Results: After spiritual therapy, the mean scores of subscales of metacognitive beliefs and dysfunctional attitudes decreased from pretest to post-test. Also, according to the findings of covariance analysis, spirituality therapy was effective in reducing the defective metacognitive beliefs and dysfunctional attitudes of elderly people (p = 0.001).
Conclusion: The application of this therapeutic approach as an effective intervention in reducing defective metacognitive beliefs and dysfunctional attitudes in aging centers is recommended.
 

---

Introduction: Getting away from the family center can lead to psychological and emotional harm to the elderly. The present study was conducted aiming to investigate the effectiveness of Spiritual Therapy on cognitive avoidance and psychological distress in the elderly are present at nursing homes in the city of Isfahan.
Method: The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest and control group design. The statistical population was all elderly are present in Sadeghieh nursing home in the city of Isfahan in 2018. 30 elderly were selected through purposive method and randomly replaced into experimental and control groups (15 in the experimental and 15 in the control group). The experimental group received eight ninety-minute sessions of therapy interventions related to spirituality during two months once a week while the control group didn’t receive any intervention. Then the people in both groups took the posttest. The applied instruments included cognitive avoidance questionnaire (Sekston and Dougas,, 2008) and psychological distress questionnaire (Kesler et.al, 2003) a. After collecting questionnaires and extracting raw data, the data analysis was done through descriptive statistics and ANCOVA method.
Results​: The results of the study showed that spiritual therapy has significant effect on cognitive avoidance and psychological distress of the elderly are present at nursing home in the city of Isfahan (p<0.001) in that this therapy was able to decrease cognitive avoidance and psychological distress of the elderly are present at nursing home in the city of Isfahan.
Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study it can be concluded that spiritual therapy using techniques such as Accountability, giving things to God and strengthening the will and eradicating negative thoughts can decrease the level of cognitive avoidance and psychological distress of the elderly are present at nursing home. Therefore spiritual therapy can be applied as an efficient therapy to decrease the level of cognitive avoidance and psychological distress of the elderly are present at nursing home.
 

---

---

Introduction: It is in high importance to pay attention to different aspects of health and well-being in the elderly age. Spiritual health is one of the important aspects of health status that is often neglected. So, this study was conducted with the aim of Assessment the status of spiritual health and related factors in elderly patients admitted to governmental hospitals in Kashan.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 300 elderly hospitalized in government hospitals in Kashan in 2018 were enrolled into study by convenience sampling. The tools of gathering data were Spiritual Well-Being Scale questionnaire. After collecting data, they were analyzed using SPSS software and independent t-test and one-way ANOVA tests.
Results:The mean score for spiritual health was 73.93±7.67. There were positive significant correlation between spiritual health scores and age (r=0.14, P=0.01).
The independent T-test showed a significant difference between the spiritual health score and the marital status (P= 0.02). The one-way ANOVA test showed a significant difference between the spiritual health score and the job (P= 0.004) and the economic status (P= 0.01).
Conclusions: According to the results, the increase in age was associated with an increase in spiritual health. Married older adults with higher economic status had higher spiritual health. Unemployed seniors experienced lower spiritual health.

---

Abstract
Background:. Successful aging is one of the most important concepts in gerontology and is a process in which a person adjusts him/herself to adapt to the changes caused by aging and be independent. Based on a review of related literature, it seems that spiritual health and social participation can be considered as important predictors of successful aging. The present study aimed to determine the power of spiritual health and social participation in predicting successful aging among the elderly living in nursing homes.
Methods: This is a analytical cross-sectional study, in which a total of 181 elderly people living in nursing homes were recruited using stratified sampling. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, multidimensional questionnaire of successful aging, JAREL Spiritual Well-Being Scale (JSWBS), and Social Participation Questionnaire (SPQ).
Results: The overall mean scores of successful aging, spiritual well-being, and social participation were shown to be 139.38 ± 34.14, 78.63 ± 19.21, and 42.09 ± 13.57, respectively. Based on the results of multivariate regression analysis, spiritual well-being and social participation predicted 62.5% of the variance of the overall successful aging score (ADJ.R2 = 0.625, R2 = 0.63, R = 0.793).
Conclusion: The results showed that the mean score of successful aging increases as the mean scores of spiritual well-being and social participation increase.
 
 

---

Introduction: Fear of aging is one of the important factors of aging experts in today's psychological world. Fear of aging always threatens the conscious person at any age. But the experience of this feeling in old age has a special depth and meaning. The main purpose of this research was the relationship between self-compassion and fear of old age: the mediating role of spiritual health in the older adults of Ilam city.
Method: The current research is a cross-sectional study (descriptive correlation type), the statistical population of this research was the elderly with an age range of 65-80 years in the year 1400. The sampling method was purposeful and the samples of this research included 300 (men/ an elderly woman from the city of Ilam. Self-compassion questionnaires of NAF, Lasher's fear of aging questionnaire and Polotzin and Ellison's spiritual health questionnaire were used. Maximum Likelihood (ML) was used using SPSS version 26 software.
Results: From the total (n=300) research sample, 140 (46.77%) were men and 160 (53.33%) were women. In the studied sample, in terms of age range, 157 people (52.33%) in the age group of 65 to 69 years, 85 people (28.33%) in the age group of 70 to 75 years, and 58 people (19.33%) in the age group they were 76 to 80 years old. The path coefficient values in the research model indicated that self-compassion directly explains 43% of the changes related to the fear of aging variable. On the other hand, the results showed that the self-compassion variable has an effect on the fear of aging indirectly through the mediator variable - spiritual health. (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The results showed that there is a significant relationship between self-pity and fear of aging in older adults. Also, the mediating role of spiritual health in relation to fear of aging was confirmed. It is concluded that the variables of self-compassion and spiritual health can be used in the educational interventions of the fear of aging in the elderly.
 

---

Introduction: Parallel to the increase of the elderly population, it has become especially important to deal with problems and variables related and effective on their physical and mental health, including spirituality and religious orientation. This research was conducted with the aim of determining the effect of Islamic spiritual therapy on the religious orientation and resilience of the elderly.
Methodology: The research method was semi-experimental and pre-test, post-test with a control group. The statistical population included all the elderly living in Ghaemshahr elderly care centers in 2023, 30 elderly people (15 experimental group and 15 control group) were selected by available sampling method. The data collection tool was the religious orientation questionnaire of Bahrami et al (2001) and resilience questionnaires of Connor and Dividson (2003). The intervention of Islamic spiritual therapy was performed on the experimental group and the control group did not receive any intervention. Data analysis was done with descriptive tests (mean and standard deviation) and covariance analysis using SPSS version 25 software. P level less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Findings: in the variable of religious orientation, the mean and standard deviation of the experimental group in the pre-test was 70.51±8.16 and in the post-test 96.15±9.86, and in the variable of resilience, the mean and standard deviation of the experimental group In the pre-test it was 47.23±5.97 and in the post-test it was 65.74±6.43. The results of the covariance analysis also showed that Islamic spiritual therapy had an effect on the resilience and religious orientation of the elderly (P < 0.01).
Conclusion: Based on the research findings, Islamic spiritual therapy can be used to reduce psychological problems and increase the peace of the elderly.
 

---

Objectives: Paying attention to the problem of reducing chronic pain in the elderly has become an important and vital issue in the direction of life expectancy, and it seems that compassion therapy and integrated spiritual therapy can each be effective in the development of coping with pain in the elderly. Thus, the present study was conducted with the aim of comparing the effectiveness of compassion therapy and integrated spiritual therapy on coping strategies for the elderly with chronic pain.
Method: The present study was applied and a semi-experimental design of pre-test, post-test and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population of the present study was composed of elderly people with chronic pain in the Noura Center for the Elderly located in Tehran in 1402. The number of elderly sample in the present study was 45 people (N=15 in each group) who were selected in a targeted way. The tool of the research was Rosenstein and Kief pain coping strategies questionnaire. The method of data analysis was analysis of variance with repeated measurements using spss software version 27.
Results: The research results showed that compassion therapy is effective on pain coping strategies in the elderly with chronic pain (F=43.114, P<0.01) with an effect size of 53%, and spiritual integrated therapy is effective on pain coping strategies. (F=85.635, P <0.01) is effective in the elderly with chronic pain with an effect size of 69%, and there is also a difference between the effectiveness of compassion therapy and integrated spiritual therapy on coping strategies for the elderly with chronic pain (0.027= p) There is a significant difference at the error level of 0.01.
Conclusion: It can be concluded that compassion therapy is more effective than spiritual integrated therapy on coping strategies for the elderly with chronic pain.
 

---

Introduction: The present study aimed to compare the effects of group spiritual therapy training based on Islamic and non-Islamic teachings on the happiness of the elderly.
Methodology: The research design was quasi-experimental, employing a pre-test and post-test approach with a control group. The statistical population included all elderly men residing in one of the nursing homes in Kermanshah City in 2024 (1403 in the Iranian calendar). After completing the Argyle et al Happiness Questionnaire (1989), 45 individuals who scored below the cutoff point on the happiness scale were selected and randomly assigned to three groups of 15 participants each (Islamic spiritual therapy training group, non-Islamic spiritual therapy group, and control group). The first group underwent eight 90-minute sessions of Islamic spiritual therapy training based on the protocol developed by Kajbaf et al (2017). The second group also participated in eight separate 90-minute sessions of Frankl’s logotherapy protocol (1998). Meanwhile, the control group did not receive any training during this period. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA).
Results: The study’s findings indicated that both Islamic spiritual therapy and non-Islamic spiritual therapy significantly increased happiness scores in the post-test phase. However, the effect of Islamic spiritual therapy was greater (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Based on the findings, both interventions—spiritual therapy based on Islamic teachings and non-Islamic spiritual therapy—proved effective in enhancing the happiness of the elderly. However, the Islamic spiritual therapy demonstrated a stronger impact.