Background and Purpose: Chronic diseases such as heart failure could disrupt mental, physical, and spiritual health. Religious practices such as prayer enhance spiritual energy and create positive attitude in patients. We aimed to investigate the effects of prayer on spiritual health of patients with chronic heart failure.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 140 patients with chronic heart failure who were hospitalized in cardiology ward of 22 Bahman Hospital of Neyshabour, Iran, in 2015. The data collection tools included Palutzian and Ellison spiritual health questionnaire and Meraviglia's prayer frequency questionnaire. To analyze the data, descriptive and inferential statistical tests (i.e., Chi-square tests, Pearson correlation coefficient, Kruskal-Wallis test, and linear regression) were run in SPSS, version 16.
Results: The results showed a significant direct relationship between prayer and spiritual health (P<0.0001, r=-0.63). There was also a significant relationship between the age, frequency of prayer, previous prayer experience, and attitude toward prayer (P<0.001). However, there was no significant relationship between gender, frequency of prayer, previous prayer experience, and attitude towards praying (P<0.06). The results of this study showed an inverse correlation between educational level, frequency of prayers, previous prayer experience, and attitude toward prayer (P<0.001). In addition, there was a significant positive association between marital status, frequency of prayer, previous prayer experience, and attitude toward prayer (P<0.0001).
Conclusion: The findings indicate that spirituality originates from both beliefs and experiences of the individual. If a person merely holds some beliefs with no experiences, then they would lack many physical and mental benefits of spirituality. The role of prayer in patients with chronic illnesses is undeniable, and it could be beneficial in the maintenance of spiritual health and in effective defiance against diseases

Keywords: Chronic heart failure, Prayer, Spiritual health

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