Associations between Religiosity, Spirituality, and Happiness among Adults Living with Neurological Illness

James B Wade; Rashelle B Hayes; James H Wade; Jonathan W Bekenstein; Kristin D Williams; Jasmohan S Bajaj

doi:10.3390/geriatrics3030035

Associations between Religiosity, Spirituality, and Happiness among Adults Living with Neurological Illness

Geriatrics (Basel). 2018 Jun 23;3(3):35. doi: 10.3390/geriatrics3030035.

Authors

James B Wade¹, Rashelle B Hayes², James H Wade³, Jonathan W Bekenstein⁴, Kristin D Williams⁵, Jasmohan S Bajaj⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA. james.wade@vcuhealth.org.
² Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA. rashelle.hayes@vcuhealth.org.
³ Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine & Research Institute, Roanoke, VA 24016, USA. jameshwade@vt.edu.
⁴ Department of Neurology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA. jonathan.bekenstein@vcuhealth.org.
⁵ Department of Neurology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA. kristin.williams@vcuhealth.org.
⁶ Department of Internal Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA. jasmohan.bajaj@vcuhealth.org.

Abstract

The study examined the associations between religiosity, spirituality, and happiness in 354 outpatients suffering from neurological disorders. After accounting for severity of cognitive decline, physical activity level, depression severity, and demographic variables (i.e., subject age, sex, ethnicity, and marital status) multivariate linear regression revealed a unique association between the Spiritual Well-Being Existential Spirituality scale (SWBS ES), and not the SWBS Religious Scale (SWBS RS), with both the Pemberton Remembered Happiness Index (PHI R) (p < 0.001), and the Pemberton Experienced Happiness Index (PHI E) (p < 0.001). Interventions focused on existential spirituality may improve health related quality of life among adult medical patients with neurological illness.

Keywords: happiness; neurological illness; psychological adjustment; spiritual well-being.