Spirituality, chronic illness, and rural life.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this article is to report the findings of an exploration of the associations among spirituality, hope, depression, social support, and well-being in rural dwelling people who have one or more chronic conditions.


METHODS
A mail survey was completed by 111 rural-dwelling people with chronic illness in two rural western states.


RESULTS
Spirituality, hope, depression, and social support had overlapping influence on well-being, although spirituality was not shown to have an independent effect. Participants reported unexpectedly high levels of hope and low levels of depression despite living with chronic illness.


CONCLUSIONS
Although spirituality did not have an independent effect, the group as a whole had active spiritual and religious lives, possibly influencing the high levels of hope and low levels of depression found.


CONCLUSIONS
The positive picture of rural people with chronic illness needs further investigation for possible mitigating effects of spirituality on problems associated with chronic illness.
Craig
Carol
C
Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon, USA.
Weinert
Clarann
C
Walton
Joni
J
Derwinski-Robinson
Barbara
B
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006694:Holistic Health; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012944:Social Support; D029181:Spirituality; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States