Death anxiety in old individuals and factors affecting depression level related with death

Abstract

This descriptive, cross-sectional study was designed with the objective to determine the factors affecting the death anxiety and deathrelated depression in elderly people. This study was carried out with the participation of 185 elderly persons, who applied to a family health center between 5th October and 22nd December 2016, were able to communicate with us and volunteered for the participation. The data for the study was obtained with a questionnaire, which constituted of 21 questions, and with the Death Anxiety and Death-related Depression Scales. Death Anxiety Scale was developed by Templer and adapted by Åženol to the Turkish language. The scale consists of 15 items. Score range of this scale changes between 0 – 15. Higher scores are interpreted as higher death anxiety and a score of 7 or greater is considered as having anxiety. Death Depression Scale was developed by Templer and his colleagues and adapted by Yaparel to the Turkish language. This scale consists of 17 items. The lowest and highest scores in this scale are 0 and 17. It has been interpreted as the following: the higher the score the higher is the death-related depression level. For the evaluation of the data, percentage calculation, one-way ANOVA, T-test and Tukey test were used. 48.9% of the participants were female and 51.1% male; 37.2% were illiterate, 39.4% were housewives, 36.1% were married, 53.9% had a balanced budget, 70.6% had social security insurance, , 73.3% had a chronic disease, 76.1% used regularly medication. Their mean age was 74.4±8.2 years. The mean scores of death anxiety and the death depression scales were 7.3±1.7 and 8.1±1.6 respectively. It was observed that the total score of the death anxiety and death depression scales changed in some elder persons according to the sociodemographic and clinical properties. 

Keywords: Death, anxiety, elderliness, depression, fear