Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2006; 11: 09
Spirituality and religiosity (SpR) are important aspects for patients suffering from chronic diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of SpR in Arabic patients with a Muslim background as compared to patients from western Germany.
Sixty-six Arabic patients (100% Muslims) with hypertension were recruited consecutively at Al-Razi Hospital and Khalil Sulaiman Hospital in Jenin (Palestine) and completed the translated SpREUK questionnaire. Patients from Germany (87% Christians) were recruited in the Community Hospital Herdecke, Essen-Mitte Clinics and a medical practice in Wuppertal. Patients were matched according to, age, marital status, gender and chronic diseases.
Arabic patients had significantly higher scores for all SpREUK scales than German patients, i.e. ‘search for meaningful support’, ‘trust in higher source’, ‘positive interpretation of disease’ and ‘support in relations of life through SpR’. Moreover, it was found that Arabic patients accept illness and bear it calmly (95%), but only one-third of German patients showed that trend, and 94% of Arabic patients argued that they have no influence on life, because it is fixed by fate, while 54% of German patients disagreed.
The observed significant differences in the SpR convictions and attitudes of Arabic and German patients might be due to cultural differences, but also to distinct religious perspectives. For Muslims the ‘spiritual causes’ of disease are regarded much more as given by Allah, but this impairs neither impair faith, as observed in German patients, nor the positive interpretation of disease.
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