Status of human dignity of adult patients admitted to hospitals of Tehran

Maintaining dignity and respect is among patients' most fundamental rights. The importance of patient dignity, the
status quo, patients' needs, and a shortage of survey studies in this area were the underlying incentives for conducting
this study.
This was a cross-sectional descriptive study in which data were collected through Patient Dignity Inventory (PDI).
The questionnaire was completed by 280 inpatients in 2012 to determine their perspectives on their personal state of
human dignity.
In this study, the mean score of patients' dignity was 1.89 out of 5 (SD = 0.81). Results indicated a significant
relationship between type of hospital and the distress caused by disease symptoms, peace of mind, and social
support (P < 0.05). There were also relationship between type of ward and dependency (P < 0.05), type of disease
and dependency (P < 0.05), gender and social support (P < 0.05), household size and peace of mind (P < 0.05). The
person's satisfaction with household income showed significant relationship with symptom distress, dependency and
existential distress (P < 0.05). Results showed a significant inverse correlation between age and patient dignity (P =
0.005, r = - 0.166). However, the relationship between employment status, health insurance, education level and the
above factors were insignificant. Studies indicate that there is a relationship between patients' dignity and mental
distress, and therefore policy makers and health services officials should establish and implement plans to maintain
and enhance patients' dignity in hospitals. Educating the health team, particularly the nurses can be very effective in
maintaining patients' dignity and respect.



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