By: Reddy Jyothsna Vaka and Surekha Kasaram
1Assistant Professor, Department of Nursing, Sarvodaya College of Nursing, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
2Associate Professor, Department of Pediatric Nursing, RR College of Nursing, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Geriatrics is the medical specialty dedicated to the health care of older adults. The word comes from the Greek “geron,” meaning old man, and “iatros,” meaning healer. However, Geriatrics is considered as Medical Gerontology (Wikipedia, 2009). Depression is a complex syndrome that manifest in a variety of ways by the older people showing that they are unhappy and disappointed. The aging process often leads to psychological and social challenges for both individuals and society. This study was conducted with 30 elderly men and women who were utilizing health services at Chittoor Government Hospital. The participants were selected using a convenience sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was utilized to investigate the connection between depression and spiritual well-being. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the Spiritual Inventory for Well-Being (SIWB) were administered through this questionnaire. The study concluded that there is a connection between depression and spiritual well-being among elderly clients. Investigator made proforma was used to collect data with the help of Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the Spiritual Index Well-being Scale (SIWB). In this study the level of depression was found to be high, and the spiritual well-being or spirituality was found to be low. This could be due to the fact that most of the subjects were not well-educated and thus might have limited knowledge and a quest for finding true meaning for their life. This was supported by Arehart-Treichel, (2006) who says that the researchers also looked for links between religious, spirituality and socio-demography. They discovered a strong positive connection between both religiousness and spirituality with older age, higher levels of education, and increased social influence.
Keywords: Geriatric depression scale (GDS), spiritual index well-being scale (SIWB), Geriatric, depression, spirituality, government hospitals
Citation:
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