{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]],"date-time":"2026-07-14T11:06:53Z","timestamp":1784027213782,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"Knowledge E DMCC","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]],"date-time":"2026-07-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1783987200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["knepublishing.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["IJRM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Spirituality is currently a major focus of health care provision. Given the lack of systematic reviews on how spiritual health interrelates with mental health status and quality of life among infertile women, this review was conducted.\r\nObjective: To investigate the association of spiritual health with mental health status and quality of life among women with infertility.\r\nMaterials and Methods: The current systematic review was conducted according to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses as well as meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology guidelines. Online databases, including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and PsycInfo, were systematically searched, along with the manual search of Google Scholar search engine. The search was conducted in both Farsi and English language by 2 independent reviewers, without a time limit, until July 2025. The quality of included cross-sectional studies were assessed using a modified version of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale with a maximum score of 7. The eligible studies were reviewed, and extracted data were narratively synthesized.\r\nResults: Of the 275 identified articles, 19 were reviewed in terms of eligibility, and 10 cross-sectional studies (involving 1852 infertile women) were included. The majority of studies scored below 5, indicating low methodological quality. The results showed that higher spiritual health was associated with lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. However, regarding quality of life, the results were contradictory.\r\nConclusion: Spiritual health is associated with reduced psychological distress in women with infertility. However, given the limited number and generally low quality of available studies, the findings should be interpreted with caution, underscoring the need for further research with more robust designs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.18502\/ijrm.v24i5.21286","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]],"date-time":"2026-07-14T10:37:31Z","timestamp":1784025451000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.18502\/knecrossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Association of spiritual health with mental health status, and quality of life among women with infertility: A systematic review"],"prefix":"10.18502","volume":"24","author":[{"given":"Narges Sadat","family":"Soltani","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Farahnaz","family":"Heshmat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohadese Bakhshi","family":"Ghalibaf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Malihe","family":"Mahmoudinia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Robab","family":"Latifnejad Roudsari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"7770","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"335829","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[1] Rezapour-Mirsaleh Y, Abolhasani F, Amini R, Choobforoushzadeh A, Masoumi S, Shameli L. 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Int J Afr Nurs Sci 2022; 17: 100463.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijans.2022.100463"},{"key":"335852","unstructured":"[24] Hosseini R, Alijanpour Agamaleki M, Mehrabi T, Ziraki Dana A, Dadkhah A. The relationship between existential dimension of spiritual well-being and quality of life in women with infertility. J Health Care 2014; 16: 53-60."},{"key":"335853","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[25] Romeiro J, Caldeira S, Brady V, Hall J, Timmins F. The spiritual journey of infertile couples: Discussing the opportunity for spiritual care. Religions 2017; 8: 76.","DOI":"10.3390\/rel8040076"},{"key":"335854","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[26] Roudsari RL, Allan HT, Smith PA. Looking at infertility through the lens of religion and spirituality: A review of the literature. Hum Fertil 2007; 10: 141-149.","DOI":"10.1080\/14647270601182677"},{"key":"335855","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[27] Etemadifar S, Hosseiny RS, Ziraki A, Omrani A, Alijanpoor M. The relationship between spiritual well-being and life satisfaction in females with infertility. Women's Health Bullet 2016; 3: e32344.","DOI":"10.17795\/whb-32344"},{"key":"335856","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[28] Domar AD, Penzias A, Dusek JA, Magna A, Merarim D, Nielsen B, et al. The stress and distress of infertility: Does religion help women cope? Sex Reprod Menopause 2005; 3: 45-51.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.sram.2005.09.007"},{"key":"335857","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[29] Chan CHY, Chan CLW, Ng EHY, Ho PC, Chan THY, Lee GL, et al. Incorporating spirituality in psychosocial group intervention for women undergoing in vitro fertilization: A prospective randomized controlled study. Psychol Psychother 2012; 85: 356-373.","DOI":"10.1111\/j.2044-8341.2011.02040.x"},{"key":"335858","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[30] Coelho-J\u00fanior HJ, Calvani R, Panza F, Allegri RF, Picca A, Marzetti E, et al. 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BMC Psychiatr 2023; 23: 729.","DOI":"10.1186\/s12888-023-05091-2"},{"key":"335862","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[34] Almasi M, Mahmoudiani S, Ghasemi T. Comparing spiritual health and quality of life among fertile and infertile women. Iran J Nurs 2015; 28: 87-95.","DOI":"10.29252\/ijn.28.93.94.87"},{"key":"335863","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[35] Stroup DF, Berlin JA, Morton SC, Olkin I, Williamson GD, Rennie D, et al. Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology: A proposal for reporting. Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology (MOOSE) group. JAMA 2000; 283: 2008-2012.","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.283.15.2008"},{"key":"335864","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[36] Blanchard L, Ray S, Law C, Vega-Sala MJ, Bidonde J, Bridge G, et al. The effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and policy processes of regulatory, voluntary and partnership policies to improve food environments: An evidence synthesis. Public Health Res (Southampt) 2024; 12: 1-173.","DOI":"10.3310\/JYWP4049"},{"key":"335865","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[37] Bae J-M. A suggestion for quality assessment in systematic reviews of observational studies in nutritional epidemiology. Epidemiol Health 2016; 38: e2016014.","DOI":"10.4178\/epih.e2016014"},{"key":"335866","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[38] Petticrew MA, Arai LI, Roberts HE, Britten NI, Popay JE. Testing methodological guidance on the conduct of narrative synthesis in systematic reviews. Evaluation 2009; 15: 49-73.","DOI":"10.1177\/1356389008097871"},{"key":"335867","unstructured":"[39] Khani S, Babakhani N. Comparing the relation between spiritual growth and perceived stress with happiness among fertile and infertile women of Tehran city. Health Psychol 2017; 5: 93-104."},{"key":"335868","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[40] Safayi P, Vafa MA. The role of spiritual factors in predicting depression in women with primary infertility. Spiritual Res Health Sci 2023; 1: 51-62.","DOI":"10.34172\/srhs.2023.005"},{"key":"335869","unstructured":"[41] Nourimand F, Forouhari S, Namavar Jahromi B, Tabei SZ, Abbasi Z, Rahbar H. Relationship between spiritual well-being, anxiety, depression and emotion in infertile women after assisted reproductive surgical technology. Iran J Surg 2020; 28: 32-40."},{"key":"335870","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[42] Dadkhahtehrani T, Momenyan S, Heidari S, Momenyan N. Association between the religious coping of infertile people with their own quality of life and their spouses': A correlation study in iranian infertile couples. Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res 2018; 23: 198-204.","DOI":"10.4103\/ijnmr.IJNMR_32_17"},{"key":"335871","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"[43] Latifnejad Roudsari R, Allan HT, Smith PA. 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