religious coping and health-promoting lifestyle among iranian infertile women

Background: infertility is recognized as a stressful and critical experience worldwide and across cultures and disrupts individual, marital, family, and social stability. religion serves as a source of support in dealing with health-related problems. this study investigates the relationship between religious coping mechanisms and health-promoting lifestyle (hpl) among iranian infertile women.methods: a cross-sectional correlational study was conducted on 177 infertile women referring to the sarem sub-specialized infertility treatment and research center in tehran city, iran, 2019. the subjects were recruited by continuous sampling. the data in this study were collected using a demographic information form, the iranian religious coping scale (ircs), and the health-promoting lifestyle profile-ii (hplp-ii). statistical analyses, including the independent t-test, one-way anova, and pearson correlation coefficient, were performed using spss software, version 22. the significance level was set at p<0.05.results: the highest mean was related to active religious coping (7.86±2.39), while passive religious coping (2.89±1.76) and negative feelings towards god (3.95±2.07) had the lowest mean scores. the mean±sd score of health-promoting lifestyle was 128.34±13.46; the score range was 52-208, lower than the median score of the scale. a weak but significant inverse relationship was observed between negative feelings towards god and hpl (r=-0.19; p=0.013) and its three subscales: physical activity (r=-0.18; p=0.019), nutrition (r=-0.21; p=0.011), and interpersonal relationships (r=-0.21; p=0.01). also, a weak yet statistically significant inverse association was observed between passive religious coping and interpersonal relations (r=-0.18; p=0.029).conclusion: considering that the mean hpl score of infertile women was lower than the median score of the scale, community-oriented education and care programs are recommended to improve hpl in infertile women. teaching and strengthening positive/active religious coping strategies to improve hpl are also advised.