Religious Coping and Health Status in Medically Ill Hospitalized Older Adults

Abstract

Associations between specific religious coping (RC) behaviors and health status in medically ill hospitalized older patients were examined and compared with associations between nonreligious coping (NRC) behaviors and health status. The sample consisted of 577 patients age 55 or over consecutively admitted to the general medical inpatient services of Duke University Medical Center (78%) or the Durham VA Medical Center (22%). Information was gathered on 21 types of RC, 11 types of NRC, and 3 global indicators of religious activity (GIRA). Health measures included multiple domains of physical health, depressive symptoms, quality of life, stress-related growth, cooperativeness, and spiritual growth. Demographic factors, education, and admitting hospital were control variables. "Negative" and "positive" types of religious coping were identified. Negative RC behaviors related to poorer physical health, worse quality of life, and greater depression were reappraisals of God as punishing, reappraisals involving demonic forces, pleading for direct intercession, and expression of spiritual discontent. Coping that was self-directed (excluding God's help) or involved expressions reflecting negative attitudes toward God, clergy, or church members were also related to greater depression and poorer quality of life. Positive RC behaviors related to better mental health were reappraisal of God as benevolent, collaboration with God, seeking a connection with God, seeking support from clergy/church members, and giving religious help to others. Of 21 RC behaviors, 16 were positively related to stress-related growth, 15 were related to greater cooperativeness, and 16 were related to greater spiritual growth. These relationships were both more frequent and stronger than those found for NRC behaviors. Certain types of RC are more strongly related to better health status than other RC types. Associations between RC behaviors and mental health status are at least as strong, if not stronger, than those observed with NRC behaviors.

Religious coping among African Americans, Caribbean Blacks and Non‐Hispanic Whites

“…Postoperatively, patients who prayed had positive emotional health (Ai, Bolling, & Peterson, 2000). Finally, older hospitalized patients who used religious coping strategies (including prayer) had higher quality of life and lower depressive symptoms (Koenig, Pargament, & Nielsen, 1998).…”

Coping (enfrentamento) religioso/espiritual

“…Dada a complexidade dessa relação, alguns modelos teóricos foram propostos por Dull e Skokan (1995), Koenig (2001b), Lilliston e Klein (1991) e Nooney e Woodrum (2002). O coping religioso/espiritual pode contribuir nessa investigação, pois tem sido citado como melhor preditor de resultados de saúde (Koenig et al, 1998b), além de estar associado a aperfeiçoamento do coping, maior suporte social e menores índices de desordens emocionais e compor tamentos que possam afetar adversamente saúde e relacionamentos humanos (Koenig, 2001a), e por considerar os aspectos positivos e negativos da religião/espiritualidade.…”

“…Para Pargament, autor de referência no tema, quando as pessoas se voltam para a religião para lidar com o estresse, ocorre o coping religioso. Koenig et al (1998b) o definem como o uso de crenças e comportamentos religiosos para facilitar a resolução de problemas e prevenir ou aliviar conseqüências emocionais negativas de situações de vida estressantes. Tais definições não mencionam explicitamente a espiritualidade, embora esta também se constitua importante fonte de coping espiritual, considerada em outras definições.…”

“…Atualmente, existem muitas evidências empíricas conectando religião/espiritualidade à saúde (George et al, 2000;Koenig, 2000b;Koenig et al, 2001;Siegel et al, 2001), tanto física (Koenig, 2001c;McIntosh e Spilka, 1990) quanto mental (Koenig, 2001a;Tepper et al, 2001), à qualidade de vida (Koenig et al, 1998b;Pargament et al, 1998aPargament et al, , 2001a) e a outros construtos relacionados, como bem-estar (Pargament et al, 2001b). Um dos construtos religiosos/espirituais que tem demonstrado indícios de relação com saúde física e mental e um dos mais utilizados para pesquisar tal relação é o coping religioso/espiritual (Fetzer Institute/National Institute of Aging (NIA) Working Group, 1999).…”

The spiritual distress assessment tool: an instrument to assess spiritual distress in hospitalised elderly persons

“…Spirituality has been shown to influence, usually in a positive way, coping with illness, disability, or life-threatening events [6-10]. Many studies have documented significant associations between spirituality and better mental, physical, and functional health, especially in cancer, HIV, and hospice patients [11,12].…”