Association between death anxiety and various aspects of spiritual experiences among elderly people in Iran

Abstract

Background: death anxiety is considered as one of the complicated, significant and multi-dimensional issues in old age. Understanding this behavior and its different aspects will help to choose a better solution in order to confront it. Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the association between death anxiety and different aspects of spiritual experiences in order to determine the mechanisms of spirituality impact on death anxiety. Methods: this cross-sectional study is a descriptive-analytical research which was conducted on 190 elderlies attending Neyshabur health care centers during 4 months of fall and winter 2016. Participants answered two questionnaires about spiritual experiences (16 items) and death anxiety (27 items). Data was analyzed by SPSS, 16 using analytical and descriptive statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient, mean and standard deviation). Findings: the results showed that among subscales of spiritual experiences, the fear of sufferings after death and fear of sudden death had the highest and lowest frequency (41.5 and 9.3), respectively. Contact with God constituted a major part of daily spiritual experiences among elderly (48.6). A significant and reverse association was only observed between contact with God and fear of suffering after death. Conclusion: the study shows that contact with God, through certain religious rites or in a form of a personal experience, could diminish death anxiety among elderly since it displays reliance on a higher power. This finding could be used to reinforce this correlation for reducing various stressors during this period of life and achieving mental health among elderlies.