Spiritual needs of geriatric hospitalized patients and the associations with depressive symptoms and pain intensity: a cross-sectional study in Belgium

ABSTRACT Geriatric patients are confronted with the context of hospital admission and their process of aging, which might influence their spiritual needs. Earlier studies pointed out that spiritual needs might be related to aspects of patient functioning such as mental health or pain experiences. In this study, we aimed to provide insight into the prevalence of religious, existential, inner peace and giving/generativity needs in a convenience sample of geriatric patients in Flanders, Belgium. We also investigated the group differences in religious and existential needs based on patients’ religious or spiritual background. Furthermore, we aimed to clarify how these needs are related to two indicators of patient functioning, more precisely depressive symptoms and pain intensity. Our results showed that items related to inner peace needs, giving/generativity needs, and religious needs were reported as most prevalent whereas existential needs scored lowest. Religious needs were mostly reported by religious patients, whereas existential needs were reported by patients with various religious or spiritual backgrounds. Regression analysis showed that existential needs were a significant predictor of depressive symptoms and of pain intensity, whereas religious needs did not function as a predictor. Caregivers interested in taking care of the whole person, might profit from the results of this study in order to get more insight into geriatric patients’ spiritual needs.