Functional well-being is positively correlated with spiritual well-being in women who have spontaneous premature ovarian failure.

Objective: To examine the relationship between spiritual well-being and functional well-being in women who have spontaneous premature ovarian failure.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: The Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center at the US National Institutes of Health.

Patient(s): Women diagnosed with spontaneous premature ovarian failure (N = 138) at a median age of 28 years.

Intervention(s): Administration of validated self-reporting instruments.

Main Outcome Measure(s): Functional Well-Being, Spiritual Well-Being, Meaning/Peace, and Faith scores.

Result(s): We found a significant positive correlation between overall spiritual well-being and functional well-being scores. The Meaning/Peace subscale strongly correlated with functional well-being, explaining approximately 62% of the variance. In contrast, the Faith subscale was less strongly correlated with functional well-being, explaining only 7% of the variance. In multiple regression analysis evaluating the relative subscale contributions to functional well-being, only Meaning/Peace remained statistically significant. We found no significant associations between either spiritual well-being or functional well-being and age; age at diagnosis; time since diagnosis; or partner, children, or racial status.

Conclusion(s): This study provides cross-sectional data supporting the need for prospective controlled studies. Strategies to improve spiritual well-being in the domains of meaning, purpose, and inner peace may provide a therapeutic approach to reduce the emotional suffering that accompanies the life-altering diagnosis of premature ovarian failure.