Exploring the Impact of Religiosity and Spirituality on the Health of the Elderly. A Special Article.

Abstract

Introduction: The study of spirituality and religiosity in the care of elderly individuals around the world—particularly those with chronic illnesses, disabilities, functional limitations, or those at the end of life—is gaining increasing attention in the literature. The terms religiosity and spirituality are closely intertwined and often used interchangeably to describe people's religious and spiritual needs.
Purpose: To describe the concepts of spirituality and religiosity and to explore their impact on the health of elderly individuals.
Material and Method: A literature review was conducted on scientific articles in the electronic databases Medline (PubMed) and Scopus over the past 35 years.
Results: A statistical correlation has been found between religiosity, spirituality, and health in studies concerning cardiovascular diseases common among elderly individuals, including blood pressure, cholesterol, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Benefits of religiosity and spirituality have been observed both before and after cardiac events. Positive effects have also been noted regarding disability and functional limitations, kidney function, liver cirrhosis, pulmonary emphysema, chronic pain, cancer, and self-rated overall health. Additionally, religiosity has been shown to reduce both the need for hospitalization and the length of hospital stays. There is also strong evidence of a connection between religiosity and mental health.
Conclusions: Many studies have demonstrated that spirituality and religiosity are factors that influence quality of life, well-being, the quality of care, and the satisfaction of elderly patients, who should always be treated as holistic biopsychosocial beings. There is a need for a unified and nuanced approach to understanding how religiosity and spirituality affect health and longevity in the context of global aging.