Abstract:

Issue addressed: Despite claims in the professional literature that spirituality is a potential resource for both health educators and practitioners working with older people, empirical research dealing with spirituality and health is meagre. This study was conducted to provide knowledge for evidence-based practice. Methods: Information was derived from the 1994 Health Status of Older People study of the health and lifestyles of 1000 people aged 65 years and older living in their own homes in Melbourne. Results: The findings from this study support the view that the influence of spirituality is not confined to mental health and its concomitants; it takes in physical health and its concomitants. These findings indicate a relationship between spirituality and health-related behaviours which we can presume contributes to health outcomes. The same conclusion applies to spirituality and psychological well-being. In both cases the direct effect of spirituality would appear to be small but nonetheless significant. Conclusions: Our results provide support for the direct but weak influence of spirituality on health, and for spirituality as a health resource available to older people in the community. The situation may be different for older people in care, or suffering major illness. The results suggest also that it would be unwise to generalise about spirituality and health from clinical or special samples to people in the community at large. It would clearly be premature to recommend that older people, or health professionals, strive for spiritual changes in order to benefit directly by health gains or reduction of health costs. (author abstract)