Spiritual Health in Iranian Elderly: A Concept Analysis by Walker and Avant's Approach

Objectives Spiritual health is an important dimension of health in humans. It coordinates individuals' forces, and ultimately, their overall health. There are Many challenges to this concept in older people. The current study aimed to analyze the concept of spiritual health in the elderly. Methods & Materials We used Walker and Avant's approach. We searched for the studies using the following keywords: "elderly people, elderly person, spirituality, spiritual health, spiritual wellbeing, elderly, older adult, and geriatric". We reviewed the literature in accordance with the study inclusion criteria, consisting of Persian and English Language studies published from 1996 to 2016; a total of 32 articles related to the concept were analyses. Results Spiritual health is a dynamic and multidimensional concept in older people's view. Some of the spiritual health attitudes in the elderly were the love of supreme power and mental balance. With respect to the afterlife, antecedents were having abilities, faith, trust, and commitment to morals and their consequences, nearness to God, peace, a higher quality of life, and providing social support to others. Conclusion The conceptual definition of spiritual health can help healthcare providers better understand this concept and conduct the interventions and evaluations of health promotion efforts to help the elderly.