Factors Associated with Death Anxiety among Community Dwelling Older Adults

Abstract

Death anxiety is a concept used to indicate concern about death awareness. High level of deathanxiety has negative consequences on elderly people and may lead to maladaptation, dissatisfactionwith life, feeling of despair or loss and lead to low self-esteem. Objective: Identify the factorsassociated with death anxiety among community dwelling older adults. Setting: The study wasconducted at two of the post offices affiliated to the Ministry of communications and informationtechnology in Alexandria, namely Moharram Bek and Sidi Bishr post offices. Subjects: 130 male andfemale older adults aged 60 years and more, living in the community, identified with death anxiety,able to communicate and willing to participate in the study. Tools: Five tools were used namely, TheArabic Scale of Death Anxiety (ASDA), Older Adults' Socio-Demographic and health well-beingStructured Interview Schedule, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS),Religious Commitment Inventory-10 (RCI-10), and the Satisfaction with Life scale. Results: The mainfindings of the current study revealed that death anxiety is prevalent among older adults with differentlevels either low, moderate, or high level. A strong negative relation between death anxiety andperceived physical and psychological wellbeing, Religious commitment, Perceived Social Support,and Satisfaction with life. Conclusion: It can be concluded that; age, education, presence of chronicdiseases, perceived physical and psychological wellbeing, religious commitment, satisfaction with lifeand social support affected the occurrence of death anxiety among older adults. Recommendations:Counseling older adults about their anxiety related to death in order to help them cope with thesituation. Emphasizing the importance of social support to decrease death anxiety.