Islamic Spiritual Well-being as a Social Determinant of Diabetes Physical and Psychological Health Outcomes

Abstract

A holistic health approach includes the physical, psychological, and social/spiritual aspects. Usually, an intervention for chronic illnesses like diabetes involves physical aspects such as medication and behavioral aspects like compliance issues. However, due to the limited training of health care providers and the novelty of the deeper spiritual layer, it has not effectively been addressed as an effective part of individuals’ well-being. As such, there is a great concern for how spiritual health is addressed for Muslim Americans. Data were collected from 100 Muslim diabetic individuals. Bivariate correlations and mediation analysis were run to examine the relationship between diabetes’ physical and psychological aspects and Islamic spiritual well-being. No significant relationship between Islamic spiritual well-being and diabetes physical outcome was found, but a significant negative relationship between Islamic spiritual health and diabetes distress was found. A positive significant relationship was found between Islamic spiritual well-being measures and diabetes psychological well-being, diabetes compliance, and diabetes balanced locus of control. The mediation of diabetes psychological health outcomes between Islamic spiritual well-being measures and diabetes physical outcomes was insignificant. Thus, it was concluded that Islamic spiritual well-being has a significant effect on diabetes psychological health outcomes. To better understand the weight of this deeper layer on the physical outcome of chronically ill individuals, further larger sample-sized investigation is recommended.