The Relationships between Spiritual Well-Being, Quality of Life and Depression among Taiwanese Elderly

Purpose: Depression is a mental health problem commonly impacting elderly people.  Elders with Chinese cultural background have a high prevalence of depression. While spirituality was revealed to have a significant association with depressive symptoms, literatures also have documented that spiritual well-being is associated with health outcomes and health promoting behaviors. However, the spiritual well-being and its relationship with quality of life and depression in the Chinese elders have not been addressed in the literature. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between spiritual well-being, quality of life and depression among Taiwanese elders.

Methods: A convenience sample of 150 Taiwanese elders who are 65 years-old or older participated in this cross-sectional study. Concepts of the study were measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Spirituality Index of Well-Being Scale (SIWB), and a SF-12v2.

Results: This study revealed that spiritual well-being was positively related to quality of life (PCS: r =0.418, p<0.01; MCS: r=0.531, p<0.01) but negatively correlated with depression (r= -0.456, p<0.01), and Taiwanese elders who had higher scores on both PCS and MCS reported lower scores on the depression scale (r = -0.513, p<0.01; r= -0.452, p<0.01).

Conclusion: Findings from this study can enhance nurse’s understandings and competences to improve elders’ health in the future.