ABSTRACT
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPIRITUAL DISTRESS AND THE LEVEL OF QUALITY OF LIFE IN ELDERLY AT UPT PSTW MAGETAN

By : Esa Cintya Habsari
The elderly undergo physical, psychological, social, and spiritual changes that can affect the quality of life. One of the problems that the elderly often experience is spiritual distress, which is a condition when individuals have difficulty finding the meaning of life and maintaining relationships with God, themselves, others, and the environment. This condition can reduce the quality of life of the elderly. This research aims to find out the relationship between spiritual distress and the level of quality of life in the elderly at UPT PSTW Magetan.
This research uses a correlational quantitative design with a cross-sectional approach. The population is 145 elderly with a sample of 107 respondents selected using the purposive sampling technique. Data was collected using the Spiritual Distress Assessment Tool (SDAT) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), then analyzed using the Pearson Chi-Square and Fisher's Exact Test at the significance level of α = 0.05.
The research results showed that most of the respondents experienced spiritual distress (72 respondents; 67,3%) and had a good quality of life (92 respondents; 86,0%). The results of the Fisher's Exact Test showed a p value of 0.019 (p < 0.05), so that H1 is accepted that there is a significant relationship between spiritual distress and the level of quality of life in the elderly at UPT PSTW Magetan. Elderly who experience spiritual distress have a tendency to experience a lower quality of life compared to the elderly who do not experience spiritual distress. Therefore, the fulfillment of spiritual needs needs to be part of the services given to the elderly as an effort to maintain and improve their quality of life.

Keywords: Spiritual Distress, Quality of Life, Elderly.