Department of Health Education and Promotion, Faculty of Health Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Department of Health Education & Promotion, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Psychogeriatrics. 2021 May;21(3):296-303. doi: 10.1111/psyg.12663. Epub 2021 Feb 12.
Older adults may be more prone to death anxiety than their younger counterparts. This study explores factors affecting death anxiety based on gender differences.
In this correlational study, 450 older adults referred to the health centres in the city of Bukan, Iran were recruited by using a randomised sampling method. Next, data were collected about the demographic questionnaire, anxiety about ageing, death anxiety, mental well-being, perceived social support, and quality of life questionnaire. The Spearman correlation coefficient was used to determine the correlation between variables, and the predictors of death anxiety were evaluated using quintile regression. Relationship between death anxiety and other variables was evaluated by the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The study was approved by the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences Ethics Committee (Ethics Code: IR.TBZMED.REC.1397.304).
The results showed that death anxiety in men had a significant relationship with the level of literacy (P = 0.047), body self-imaging (P = 0.031), and perceived social activity (P = 0.033). Among women, death anxiety had a significant relationship with physical activity (P = 0.007) and perceived social activity (P = 0.002). Additionally, quintile regression analysis was calculated: among men, anxiety about ageing was related to death anxiety (β = 0.182, P = 0.05), while in women, only perceived social support was associated to death anxiety (β = -0.376, P = 0.05). Finally, according to SEM, a significantly different level of predictability of mental well-being was found for death anxiety among older men and women.
Understanding the gender differences about death anxiety by the healthcare system might be useful in controlling and reducing a variety of concerns among elders who experience high levels of anxiety of death.
老年人可能比年轻人更容易产生死亡焦虑。本研究探讨了基于性别差异的影响死亡焦虑的因素。
在这项相关性研究中，伊朗布坎市的健康中心招募了 450 名年龄较大的成年人，采用随机抽样方法。接下来，收集了关于人口统计学问卷、对衰老的焦虑、死亡焦虑、心理健康、感知社会支持和生活质量问卷的数据。使用 Spearman 相关系数来确定变量之间的相关性，并用五分位回归来评估死亡焦虑的预测因素。通过结构方程模型（SEM）来评估死亡焦虑与其他变量之间的关系。该研究得到了塔比兹大学医学科学伦理委员会的批准（伦理代码：IR.TBZMED.REC.1397.304）。
结果表明，男性的死亡焦虑与文化程度（P=0.047）、身体自我形象（P=0.031）和感知社会活动（P=0.033）水平显著相关。对于女性，死亡焦虑与身体活动（P=0.007）和感知社会活动（P=0.002）显著相关。此外，还计算了五分位回归分析：对于男性，对衰老的焦虑与死亡焦虑相关（β=0.182，P=0.05），而对于女性，只有感知社会支持与死亡焦虑相关（β=-0.376，P=0.05）。最后，根据 SEM，发现对于老年男性和女性，心理健康对死亡焦虑的预测水平有显著差异。
通过医疗保健系统了解老年人对死亡焦虑的性别差异，可能有助于控制和减少那些经历高度死亡焦虑的老年人的各种担忧。
