Background: Spiritual health literacy, as a multidimensional concept, encompasses the knowledge, awareness, and abilities necessary to understand spirituality, spiritual values, and spiritual connections in students' lives.
Objectives: This research was conducted with the aim of qualitatively analyzing the factors affecting spiritual health literacy in students.
Methods: The design of this qualitative research was based on the framework of thematic analysis. The statistical population included all specialists and experts in the field of health literacy and spiritual health at Gonabad University of Medical Sciences in 2024. By using a purposeful sampling and achieving data saturation, a semi-structured interview was conducted after explaining the purpose of the research. The interview guide was prepared with a combination of open-ended, probing, and supplemental questions regarding spiritual health literacy. With the consent of the participants, all interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed. Saturation was attained after interviewing 13 individuals. Interview data were analyzed using thematic analysis method.
Results: According to the findings of the present study, nine main themes emerged: culture, family factors, education, justice, characteristics of society, modeling, socio-economic conditions, belief in spirituality, and laws. These themes are based on 35 sub-themes, including existing values, Iranian culture, Islamic culture, cultural norms, ethnic structure, familial beliefs, types of relationships, quality of relationships, emphasized values, educational styles, formal education, informal education, methods of advertising, educational perspectives, social equality, individual equality, gender equality, equal conditions, types of democracy, types of policies, types of relationships, emphasized patterns, national heroes, historical heroes, etc., serving as precursors to the concept of spiritual health literacy.
Conclusion: The findings highlight that spiritual health literacy is a multifaceted concept influenced by cultural, familial, educational, and socio-economic factors, and can be cultivated through intentional practices and alignment with cultural values.