Abstract
Spirituality and religious beliefs are important for coping with medical conditions. The dopaminergic system is involved in reward behavior, and its dysfunction in Parkinson Disease (PD) raises questions about religiosity and spirituality in people with PD. This study examines the association between levels of spirituality and religiosity and the severity of PD motor and non-motor symptoms. The secondary aim investigates the perceived impact of PD diagnosis on spirituality and religiosity. This was a cross-sectional analysis of demographic, physical, mental, and spirituality and religiosity status in patients with PD recruited for the Health Outcomes Measurement (HOME) Study at the University of Maryland Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorders Center, Baltimore, USA. Spirituality and religiosity were assessed using the Spiritual Well-being Scale, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Spiritual Religious and Personal Belief field-test instrument. The sample size was 85 PD patients. The mean age (standard deviation) was 65.5 (9.4) years and 67.1% were male. Higher levels of spirituality and religiosity were associated with younger age, sex (female), less education, religious affiliation (Christian), and mental health status. After adjusting for age, education, gender, race, marital status, religion, physical health, mental health, and comorbidity, only anxiety was associated with all of the spirituality/religiosity assessments. The majority of patients reported no change in their religious or spiritual beliefs following diagnosis. Greater spirituality and religiosity were associated with less anxiety. Also, younger women with PD showed higher levels of spirituality and religiosity. Longitudinal studies on more diverse populations are needed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Balboni, T. A., VanderWeele, T. J., Doan-Soares, S. D., Long, K. N. G., Ferrell, B. R., Fitchett, G., Koenig, H. G., Bain, P. A., Puchalski, C., Steinhauser, K. E., Sulmasy, D. P., & Koh, H. K. (2022). Spirituality in serious illness and health JAMA. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 328(2), 184–197. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.11086
Belujon, P., & Grace, A. A. (2017). Dopamine system dysregulation in major depressive disorders. The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 20(12), 1036–1046. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijnp/pyx056
Butler, P. M., McNamara, P., Ghofrani, J., & Durso, R. (2011). Disease-associated differences in religious cognition in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 33(8), 917–928. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2011.575768
A cross-cultural study of spirituality, religion, and personal beliefs as components of quality of life. Social science & medicine, 62(6), 1486-1497 doi.org: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.08.001
Davison, S. N., & Jhangri, G. S. (2013). The relationship between spirituality, psychosocial adjustment to illness, and health-related quality of life in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 45(2), 170–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2012.02.019
Derogatis, L. R., & Melisaratos, N. (1983). The brief symptom inventory: An introductory report. Psychological Medicine, 13(3), 595–605. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291700048017
Fahn, S., & Elton, R. L. (1987). UPDRS Development Committee. The Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale. In S. Fahn, C. D. Marsden, D. B. Calne, M. Goldstein (Eds.), Recent Developments in Parkinson’s Disease (2nd ed, pp. 153–163, 293–304). Macmillan Healthcare Information.
Gao, J., Wang, Q., Wu, Q., Weng, Y., Lu, H., & Xu, J. (2022). Spiritual care for the management of Parkinson’s disease: Where we are and how far can we go. Psychogeriatrics, 22(4), 521–529. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyg.12834
Garssen, B., Visser, A., & De Jager Meezenbroek, E. (2016). Examining whether spirituality predicts subjective well-being: How to avoid tautology. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 8(2), 141–148. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000025
Giaquinto, S., Bruti, L., Dall’Armi, V., Palma, E., & Spiridigliozzi, C. (2010). Religious and spiritual beliefs in outpatients suffering from Parkinson disease. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 26(9), 916–922. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.2624
Gómez Palencia, I. P., Cantillo Banquett, D., Coronado Quintana, M., López Villamizar, A., & Vergara Mendoza, Y. (2016). Spirituality and religiosity in elderly adults with chronic disease. Investigación y Educación En Enfermería, 34(2), 235–242. https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.iee.v34n2a02
Grossoehme, D. H., Friebert, S., Baker, J. N., Tweddle, M., Needle, J., Chrastek, J., Thompkins, J., Wang, J., Cheng, Y. I., & Lyon, M. E. (2020). Association of religious and spiritual factors with patient-reported outcomes of anxiety, depressive symptoms, fatigue, and pain interference among adolescents and young adults with cancer. JAMA Network Open, 3(6), e206696. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.6696
Han, J. W., Ahn, Y. D., Kim, W., Shin, C. M., Jeong, S. J., Song, Y. S., Bae, Y. J., & Kim, J. (2018). Psychiatric manifestation in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Korean Medical Science, 33(47), e300. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2018.33.e300
Hill, P. C., Pargament, K. I., Hood, R. W., McCullough, J. M., Swyers, J. P., Larson, D. B., & Zinnbauer, B. J. (2000). Conceptualizing religion and spirituality: Points of commonality, points of departure. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 30(1), 51–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5914.00119
Hoehn, M. M., & Yahr, M. D. (1967). Parkinsonism: Onset, progression, and mortality. Neurology, 17(5), 427–427. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.17.5.427
Koenig, H. G. (2008). Concerns about measuring “Spirituality” in research. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 196(5), 349–355. https://doi.org/10.1097/nmd.0b013e31816ff796
Koenig, H. G. (2023). A response to the Paal et al. Rejoinder: Religiosity and risk of Parkinson’s disease in England and the USA. Journal of Religion and Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-022-01734-y
Lachenbruch, P. A., & Cohen, J. (1989). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Journal of the American Statistical Association, 84(408), 1096. https://doi.org/10.2307/2290095.
Linn, B. S., Linn, M. W., & Gurel, L. (1968). Cumulative illness rating scale. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 16(5), 622–626. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.1968.tb02103.x
McNamara, P., Durso, R., & Brown, A. (2006). Religiosity in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 2(3), 341–348. https://doi.org/10.2147/nedt.2006.2.3.341
Moreira-Almeida, A., & Koenig, H. G. (2006). Retaining the meaning of the words religiousness and spirituality: A commentary on the WHOQOL SRPB group’s “A cross-cultural study of spirituality, religion, and personal beliefs as components of quality of life” (62: 6, 2005, 1486–1497). Social Science & Medicine, 63(4), 843–845. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.03.001
Otaiku, A. I. (2022). Religiosity and risk of Parkinson’s disease in England and the USA. Journal of Religion and Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-022-01603-8
Paal, P., Avión Martínez, S., Lorenzl, S., & Goldzweig, G. (2023). A rejoinder to Otaiku: Religiosity and risk of Parkinson’s Disease in England and the USA—The health determinants of spirituality, religiosity and the need for state of the art research. Journal of Religion and Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-022-01726-y
Paloutzian, R. F., & Ellison, C. W. (1982). Spiritual well-being scale. PsycTESTS Dataset. https://doi.org/10.1037/t00534-000
Pangman, V. C., Sloan, J., & Guse, L. (2000). An examination of psychometric properties of the mini-mental state examination and the standardized mini-mental state examination: Implications for clinical practice. Applied Nursing Research, 13(4), 209–213. https://doi.org/10.1053/apnr.2000.9231
Previc, F. H. (2006). The role of the extrapersonal brain systems in religious activity. Consciousness and Cognition, 15(3), 500–539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2005.09.009
Prizer, L. P., Kluger, B. M., Sillau, S., Katz, M., Galifianakis, N., & Miyasaki, J. M. (2020). Correlates of spiritual wellbeing in persons living with Parkinson disease. Annals of Palliative Medicine, 9(S1), S16–S23. https://doi.org/10.21037/apm.2019.09.13
Puchalski, C. M., Vitillo, R., Hull, S. K., & Reller, N. (2014). Improving the spiritual dimension of whole person care: Reaching national and international consensus. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 17(6), 642–656. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2014.9427
Ramaker, C., Marinus, J., Stiggelbout, A. M., & Van Hilten, B. J. (2002). Systematic evaluation of rating scales for impairment and disability in Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders, 17(5), 867–876. https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.10248
Redfern, C., & Coles, A. (2015). Parkinson’s disease, religion, and spirituality. Movement Disorders Clinical Practice, 2(4), 341–346. https://doi.org/10.1002/mdc3.12206
Redfern, C., Mason, S. L., Barker, R. A., & Coles, A. (2020). Parkinson’s disease and spirituality. NeuroRehabilitation, 46(1), 31–39. https://doi.org/10.3233/nre-192947
Reed, P. G. (1986). Spiritual perspective scale. Unpublished Instrument.
Rohde, G. E., Young, T., Winstanley, J., Arraras, J. I., Black, K., Boyle, F., Bredart, A., Costantini, A., Guo, J., Irarrazaval, M. E., Kobayashi, K., Kruizinga, R., Navarro, M., Omidvari, S., Serpentini, S., Spry, N., Laarhoven, H., Yang, G., & Vivat, B. (2019). Associations between sex, age and spiritual well-being scores on the EORTC QLQ-SWB32 for patients receiving palliative care for cancer: A further analysis of data from an international validation study. European Journal of Cancer Care, 28(6), e13145. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecc.13145
Shaw, A., Joseph, S., & Linley, P. A. (2005). Religion, spirituality, and posttraumatic growth: A systematic review. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 8(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/1367467032000157981
Urgesi, C., Aglioti, S. M., Skrap, M., & Fabbro, F. (2010). The spiritual brain: Selective cortical lesions modulate human self-transcendence. Neuron, 65(3), 309–319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2010.01.026
Vergese, A. (2008). Spirituality and mental health. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 50(4), 233. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.44742
Ware, J. E., Kosinski, M., & Keller, S. D. (1996). A 12-item short-form health survey. Medical Care, 34(3), 220–233. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005650-199603000-00003
Acknowledgements
This study would not be possible without the generous support from the Rosalyn Newman Foundation.
Funding
The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
SG was involved in the conception and design of the study and interpretation of data, drafting the article and revising it critically for important intellectual content, final approval of the version to be submitted. ALGB helped in the conception and design of the study, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data, revising the article critically for important intellectual content, final approval of the version to be submitted. SS helped in acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data, revising the article critically for important intellectual content, final approval of the version to be submitted. SGR contributed to the conception and design of the study, revising the article critically for important intellectual content, final approval of the version to be submitted. RvC was involved in the conception and design of the study, revising the article critically for important intellectual content, final approval of the version to be submitted. JMS helped in the conception and design of the study, revising the article critically for important intellectual content, final approval of the version to be submitted. LMS was involved in the conception and design of the study, acquisition of data, and interpretation of data, drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, final approval of the version to be submitted.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Consent to participate
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Consent to publish
Not applicable. The current study does not contain any individual person’s data in any form (including any individual details, images, or videos).
Ethics approval
This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the University of Maryland Institutional Review Board.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Ghourchian, S., Gruber-Baldini, A.L., Shakya, S. et al. Spirituality in Parkinson’s Disease within a Sample from the USA. J Relig Health 62, 4177–4191 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01817-4
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01817-4