Religious Studies of the Media

Religious Studies of the Media

Investigating the Impact of Virtual Pilgrimage on the Spiritual Health of Elderly Residents in the Khahrizak Nursing Home

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
narges amini 1
parisa taheri 2
yadollah abolfathi momtaz 3
ali ramezankhani 4
1 Master's degree in geriatric health, Department of Public Health, School of Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Associate Professor of Department of Internal Medicine, Ayatollah Taleghani Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 Associate Professor of Aging Research Center, University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4 Professor of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Safety Department, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
10.22034/jmrs.2024.209284
Abstract

Objective: Spiritual health is one of the dimensions of health, and pilgrimage is a spiritual practice. Elderly individuals, particularly those residing in nursing homes, are often unable to perform pilgrimages due to balance and mobility disorders, environmental safety issues, and travel risks. Therefore, virtual reality technology can bring the pilgrimage site to them. With this technology, a three-dimensional representation of the pilgrimage site is created through special glasses, allowing the elderly to view different angles of the site by moving their heads. This study aimed to investigate the impact of virtual pilgrimage on the spiritual health of elderly residents in the Khahrizak nursing home in Alborz province.
Research Methodology: This Semi-experimental study was conducted at the Khahrizak nursing home. Fifty elderly individuals were selected for the intervention group and fifty for the control group. Initially, a pre-test for spiritual health was conducted in both groups. Then, in the intervention group, a virtual pilgrimage to Karbala was conducted over four sessions lasting ten minutes each within one month. Finally, a post-test for spiritual health was administered to both groups. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. Chi-square tests were used to examine differences in demographic variables between the intervention and control groups, while independent t-tests and paired t-tests were used for normally distributed data.
Findings: Results indicated that spiritual health significantly increased in the intervention group after the intervention. There was no difference in mean spiritual health between the two groups before the intervention; however, after conducting the virtual pilgrimage, this difference became significant.
Discussion and Conclusion: Virtual pilgrimage is effective in enhancing the spiritual health of elderly residents in nursing homes. Given the high prevalence of mobility disorders among the elderly and the risks associated with physical pilgrimages, virtual pilgrimage can serve as an alternative to actual pilgrimage.
Keywords
Spiritual Health
Virtual Pilgrimage
Virtual Reality
Aging
  1. A ahmadian, M. h. (2014). effective of brief virtual reality therapy in reducing symptoms of chronic PTSD due shock war. journal of millitary psychology, 17-28.
  2. A jadidi, M. f. (2011). the relationship between spiritual wellbeing and quality of life among elderly people residents in kahrizak senior house. iranian journal of nursing, 56-48. DOI:10.1097/HNP.0000000000000081
  3. A rahimi, N. A. (2013). exploring spirituality in iranian healthy elderly. journal of nursing and midwifery research,
  4. arias, P. (2012). virtual rfeality as a tool for evaluation of repetetive rhytmic movmente in the elderly and parkinson pationts. PLos one, 300-21. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030021
  5. bruin, E. (2010). use of virtual reality technique for the training of motor control in the elderly. zeitscrift fur gerontologie und geriatrie, 229-34. DOI:10.1007/s00391-010-0124-7
  6. cherniack, E. (2011). Not just fun and games; application of virtual reality in the identification and rehabilitation of cognitive disorders of elderly. disability and rehabilitation assistive technology, 283-9. DOI:10.3109/17483107.2010.542570
  7. cho, G. (2014). the effect of virtual reality based balance training on balance of elderly. journal of physical therapy sciences, 57-61. DOI:10.1589/jpts.26.615
  8. Chuengsatiansup, K. (2003). Spirituality and haelth: An initial proposal to incorporate spiritual health in health impact assesment. enviromental impact assessment review, 3-15. DOI:10.1016/S0195-9255(02)00037-9
  9. cook, J. (1976). the religious sector explores its mission in aging. national interfaith coalition on aging.
  10. eslami, p. (2013). effectiveness of virtual reality on alleviating fears of flying in people with aviophobia. journal of clinical psychology studies, 43-62.
  11. F Azizi, E. G. (2012). conceptual definition and operationalization of spiritual health. medical ethics journal.
  12. F khalili, s. s. (2013). spiritual health among isfahanian elderly people. journal of aging, 16-23.
  13. fischer, B. (2003). mission and recent projects of UCLA cultural virtual reality laboratory. virtual retrospect, 5-7.
  14. G optale, C. u. (2010). controlling memory impairment in elderly adult using virtual reality memory training. neurorehabilitatio and neural repair, 348-57. DOI:10.1177/1545968309353328
  15. Garcia-Betances, R. (2015). using virtual reality for cognitive training of the elderly. american journal of alzheimers disease and other dementias, 49-54. DOI:10.1177/1533317514545866
  16. Hazzard. (1990). principle of geriatric medicine and gerontology. McGraw-Hill.
  17. Hillsmith, C. (2011). Cyberpilgrimage: the virtual realityof online pilgrimage experience. religion compass, 236-46. DOI:10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00277.x
  18. I shahmoradi, s. A. (2017). Application of virtual inviroment in health modern medical information sciences, 70-78.
  19. J halter, J. o. (2009). Hazzards geriatric medicine and gerontology. McGraw-Hill.
  20. J Hwang, S. l. (2017). the effect of virtual reality program on the cognitive function and balanceof the poeple. physical therapy sciences, 1283-6. DOI:10.1589/jpts.29.1283
  21. J park, j. y. (2016). a new approach to improve cognition, muscle strength, postural balance in community-dwelling elderly with 3D virtual reality kayak program. experimental medicine, 1-8. DOI:10.1620/tjem.238.1
  22. Jw fisher, L. f. (2000). assessing spiritual health via four domain of spiritula wellbeing. pastoral psychology , 133-45.
  23. LD morris, Q. l. (2010). feasibility and potential effect of a low-cost virtual reality system on reducing pain and anxiety in adult burn injury during physiotherapyin developing country. burns, 659-64. DOI:10.1016/j.burns.2009.09.005
  24. ling, Y. (2014). Ameta-analysis on the relationship between self reported prescence and anxiety in virtual reality exposure therapy for anxiety disorders. PLOS one.
  25. Lui, G. (2016). virtual reality glasses. google patents.
  26. M Abbasi, F. A. (2012). Conceptual definition and operationalization of spiritual health. Medical ethics journal, 11-44.
  27. M Aliakbari, A. A. (2017). the effect of virtual reality on psychological disorder in cancer cases. military caring sciences, 49-57.
  28. M Rasel, A. A. (2007). The future o aging and its health care costs. journal of aging.
  29. M saydshohadai, S. H. (2013). The spiritual health of senior living in sanitarium in home residents. journal of nursing, 11-20. DOI:10.32598/sija.13.10.380
  30. Macwilliams, M. (2002). virtual pilgrimage on the internet. religion, 315-35. DOI:10.1006/reli.2002.0408
  31. mesbah, M. (2013). islamic approach to spiritual health. hoghooghi publication.
  32. mojgan, A. (2006). nursing studen spiritual wellbeing, spirituality and spiritual care. Tehran university of medical sciences.
  33. montero-odasso, M. (2012). gait and cognition: a complementary approach to understanding brain function and the risk of falling. journal of the american geriatrics society, 2127-36. DOI:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2012.04209.x
  34. N jabara, E. O. (2014). effect of ennacement in eppisodic memoory. frontiers in aging neuroscinces, 338.
  35. Neri, S. (2017). Do virtual reality games improve mobility skills and balance measurment in community dwelling older adult? clinical rehabilitation, 1292-304. DOI:10.1177/0269215517694677
  36. Norollahi, G. N. (2011). national census of population and housing. statistical center of iran.
  37. Organization, W. H. (2011). Global Health and Aging. Geneva: WHO.
  38. Organization, W. H. (2015). Definition of an older or elderly.
  39. organization, W. h. (2015). World report of aging and health.
  40. P amiri, M. a. (2015). Designation and psychometric assessment of comprehensive spiritual health questionaire for iranian populations. Medical ethics journal, 25-56.
  41. park, K. (2007). parks textbook of preventive and social meidcine.
  42. repetto, c. (2016). virtuality as an embodied tool to enhance episodic memory in elderly. frontiers in psychology. DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01839
  43. Sartorious, N. (2006). the meaning of health and its promotion. Croatian medical journal, 662.
  44. United State NY, d. o. (2002). World population aging 1950-2050. United Nations.
  45. vader, J. (2006). Spiritual health: the next forniter. oxford university press.
  46. VerBeek. (2000). spirituality: a developmental taboo. development in practice, 31-43.
  47. Wbonnel, k. f. (2007). integrating geriatric resources into the classroom: virtual tour examples. geriatric nursing, 301-5.
  48. xiarhos, M. (2016). authenticity and the cyberpilgrimage. journal of religion and society, 111-18.
Religious Studies of the Media
Volume 6, Issue 22
Summer 2024
Pages 97-119