Soc Sci Med. 2006 Mar;62(6):1486-97. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.08.001. Epub 2005 Sep 13.
This paper reports on an international study in 18 countries (n=5087) to observe how spirituality, religion and personal beliefs (SRPB) relate to quality of life (QoL). SRPB is assessed using the World Health Organization's QoL Instrument (the WHOQOL), where eight additional facets were included to more fully address these issues as they pertain to QoL, along with physical, social, psychological and environmental domains. The facets address issues such as inner peace, faith, hope and optimism, and spiritual connection. The results showed that SRPB was highly correlated with all of the WHOQOL domains (p<0.01), although the strongest correlations were found with psychological and social domains and overall QoL. When all of the domain scores were entered into a stepwise hierarchal regression analysis, all of the domains contributed to overall quality of life (N=3636), explaining 65% of the variance. When this was repeated for those people who reported poor health (N=588), it was found that only four domains explain 52% of the variance. The first was the level of independence, followed by environment, SRPB and physical. Gender comparisons showed that despite showing lower scores for facets in the psychological domain, such as negative feelings and poorer cognitions, women still reported greater feelings of spiritual connection and faith than men. Those with less education reported greater faith but were less hopeful. It is suggested that SRPB should be more routinely addressed in assessment of QoL, as it can make a substantial difference in QoL particularly for those who report very poor health or are at the end of their life.
本文报告了一项在18个国家开展的国际研究（n = 5087），旨在观察精神性、宗教和个人信仰（SRPB）与生活质量（QoL）之间的关系。使用世界卫生组织的生活质量评估工具（WHOQOL）对SRPB进行评估，该工具除了身体、社会、心理和环境领域外，还纳入了另外八个方面，以便更全面地处理与生活质量相关的这些问题。这些方面涉及内心平静、信仰、希望和乐观主义以及精神联系等问题。结果表明，SRPB与WHOQOL的所有领域都高度相关（p < 0.01），尽管与心理和社会领域以及总体生活质量的相关性最强。当将所有领域得分纳入逐步分层回归分析时，所有领域都对总体生活质量有贡献（N = 3636），解释了65%的方差。对报告健康状况不佳的人群（N = 588）重复此分析时，发现只有四个领域解释了52%的方差。第一个是独立水平，其次是环境、SRPB和身体领域。性别比较表明，尽管女性在心理领域的一些方面得分较低，如负面情绪和较差的认知，但她们报告的精神联系和信仰感受仍比男性更强烈。受教育程度较低的人报告的信仰更强，但希望较少。建议在生活质量评估中应更常规地考虑SRPB，因为它对生活质量有重大影响，特别是对于那些报告健康状况非常差或处于生命末期的人。
