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- Title
Death Anxiety and Its Associated Factors among Elderly Population of Ludhiana City, Punjab.
- Authors
Saini, Prabhjot; Patidar, Anurag B.; Kaur, Ravneet; Kaur, Mandeep; Kaur, Jasbir
- Abstract
The purpose of this exploratory study was to assess the level of death anxiety and its associated factors among 200 elderly subjects (male=103 and female=97) age 60 years and above, selected by using convenience sampling technique, from selected areas of Ludhiana city, Punjab. "Standardized Templer's Death Anxiety scale-extended" (Templer et al., 2006) was used for assessing the death anxiety among elderly population. A questionnaire was developed to assess the associated factors related to death anxiety. Data was collected by self report method. Most of the elderly (mean age 67.64±6.08) showed moderate level of death anxiety i.e. 64.5 per cent with death anxiety mean score 22.82±2.58 while 18.5 per cent showed severe level of death anxiety with death anxiety mean score 29.45±1.62. Subjects who were suffering from chronic medical illness (p=0.05), disturbed family cohesiveness (p=0.02), having stress related to family (p=0.01), only family earner (p=0.05) showed significantly higher level of death anxiety. Having religious affiliations showed strong positive association with level of death anxiety in Indian elderly (p<0.01). Among this elderly cohort, a high level of death anxiety was also associated with female gender (p=0.00), illiteracy (p=0.00), low socio-economic status (p=0.00), those living with spouse only (p=0.04), non working elderly (p=0.00). In conclusion it may be said that elderly people show moderate to high level of death anxiety in their later life. High level of death anxiety is associated with medical illness, loneliness, stress related to family, female gender, illiteracy, low socio-economic status and non working elderly. Therefore, Death anxiety needs more critical attention in acute care settings especially among elderly where the focus is on active treatment and curative management.
- Subjects
INDIA; GERIATRIC psychology; OLDER people; FEAR of death; ANXIETY; OLD age homes; PSYCHOLOGY
- Publication
Indian Journal of Gerontology, 2016, Vol 30, Issue 1, p101
- ISSN
0971-4189
- Publication type
Article