THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPIRTUAL WELLBEING AND DEPRESSION IN MEDICAL STUDENTS OF URMIA UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

Depression is one of the most important challenges in society and is not limited
to a particular time, space and person. In the past, the positive impact of spirituality on health was
established with a significant relationship. In this study, the researchers tried to assess the relationship
between different aspects of spirituality and depression to use the results for preparing a program to
prevent and control depression.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive correlational study was conducted on a total of 90 medical
students of Urmia University of Medical Sciences who were selected according to the census and the
standards of research. Demographic information, Palutzian & Ellison questionnaire for spiritual health
and (USDI) questionnaire for depression of students were used for data gathering.
Results: In this study 59% of participants were women and 41% were men; 97.8% of them were married;
68 of the students lived in a dormitory, 34 people reported less satisfaction with their lives and 87
students had a moderate degree of spirituality. There was a significant relationship between spirituality
and marital status and a negative significant relationship between spirituality a depression.
Conclusion: The results showed that there is a significant inverse association between depression and
spirituality. In other words, the more degree of spirituality is, the lower the rate of depression is.
Therefore, the degree of spirituality is one of the most important predictors of depression.