Comparison of Happiness and Spiritual Well-Being among the Community Dwelling Elderly and those who Lived in Sanitariums

BACKGROUND Several studies are available on the lifestyle, psychological and mental health of the elderly adults. This study aimed to compare the spiritual well-being and happiness in the elderly who lived in sanitariums with those lived in the community. METHODS A comparative study was conducted on 384 elderly adults. A census sampling was used in sanitariums and a convenience sampling was performed to select the community dwelling (CD) older adults. A demographic questionnaire, the Pauloutzian and Ellison's spiritual well-being scale and the Oxford happiness questionnaire were used in this study. Descriptive statistics and Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests and Spearman correlation coefficient were employed for data analysis, using the SPSS software, version 13.0. RESULTS From the total participants, 56% were CD elderly and 44% were in sanitariums. Among the CD older adults, no one was at a high level of spiritual well-being while in sanitariums 24.4% were at a high level of spiritual well-being. Also, 71.2% of the community dwelling older adults were at a high level of happiness while only 3.6% of those living in sanitariums expressed a high level of happiness. A significant association was found between the level of spiritual well-being and happiness in those who lived in sanitariums (r=0.177, P<0.021). CONCLUSION Most of the elderly living in the community and in sanitariums showed moderate spiritual well-being and low happiness. Therefore, nurses and health authorities are responsible not only to inform the community about the importance of spiritual well-being and happiness, but also to establish some strategies in this regard.