The Influence of Spiritual Counseling on Thanatophobia in HIV/AIDS Patients at Lentera Minangkabau Padang in 2024

Sandra Andini, Ari Sukma Nela

Abstract

Thanatophobia is one of the anxiety disorders that can be experienced by HIV/AIDS patients when they become aware of their disease status, which is associated with death. Therefore, holistic support is essential, including support from the spiritual aspect, which is often overlooked. One form of spiritual support is the provision of spiritually-based interventions to help reduce levels of thanatophobia. This study aims to evaluate the effect of spiritual intervention on the levels of thanatophobia in HIV/AIDS patients.This study used a quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest with control group design. The sample in this study consisted of 24 individuals, with 12 in the intervention group and 12 in the control group, using purposive sampling technique. The study took place at Lentera Minang Kabau, and the research was conducted over 30 days from January 15 to February 26, 2024. Data analysis was performed using the t-test.The results showed that the average spirituality score before the intervention was 5.00 (SD 1.907), and after the intervention, it increased to 16.00 (SD 2.089), with a p-value of 0.000 (p<0.05), indicating a significant change. The average score of thanatophobia in the intervention group was 2.333 (SD 2.387) with p=0.006, while in the control group it was only 0.333 (SD 0.778) with p=0.166. The study also found an effect of respondent characteristics on the level of thanatophobia. In conclusion, spiritual intervention proved effective in reducing thanatophobia levels in HIV/AIDS patients in the intervention group, but had no significant effect in the control group. It is recommended that healthcare workers, particularly nurses, collaborate with religious leaders to provide more intensive spiritual training using classical methods, accompanied by guidance, monitoring, and evaluation.