Exploring religious coping strategies epilepsy patients in Turkey: A descriptive study

Objective

It is seen that religious coping methods are used in the literature, but the existing literature on religious coping methods and coping strategies used by epilepsy patients is insufficient. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the positive and negative religious coping levels of epilepsy patients.

Methods

This research is a descriptive research type. The research data were collected from patients with epilepsy living in a province in eastern Turkey between April and June 2024. The research population consists of epilepsy patients living in Erzurum province. The sample consisted of 154 patients who agreed to participate in the study. Data collection tools were “Questionnaire Form” and “Religious Coping Scale.” Frequency, percentage calculations, mean and standard deviation values were used to evaluate the data. One Way Anova, Independent Sample t-test, Mann-Whitney U, and Pearson correlation tests were also used.

Results

Positive religious coping scores (22.90 ± 5.35) and Negative religious coping scores (7.24 ± 3.25) of epilepsy patients were found to be at high levels. Participants’ gender, marital status, occupation, income status, prayer, fasting, and Quran reading habits significantly affected their positive religious coping behaviors (p < 0.05). In addition, it was determined that as the age of the participants increased, they resorted to positive religious coping behaviors more (r: 0.215, p < 0.05).

Conclusions

The results of the study show that the positive and negative religious coping levels of epilepsy patients are high. In addition, the participants prefer positive religious coping behaviors more.